She'll Never Be Me
by AlphaWriter1
Summary: "Her life did,however,come to a halting stop when she learned that Noah Puckerman was in a relationship with Lauren Zizes."Puck may be totally over his hot little Jewish American Princess,but she's not buying it.She's going to prove that there's no way his new girl could ever compete with her.Pezberry&Britchzel friendships, Puckleberry endgame.Canon up to Silly Love Songs.
1. The Proposition

**She'll Never Be Me  
A Glee Fan Fiction  
Chapter 1  
_A/N: Shout out and a big thank you to WiseGirl314 for giving me this awesome story idea!_  
**

Rachel Berry's world did not crash and burn when she learned that Finn Hudson, her new crush, was dating head cheerleader Quinn Fabray during the previous school year. Her world did not crumble to the ground upon him rejecting her after Sectionals, because he wanted to 'test the waters' with all the other 'fish in the sea'. Her world did not stop turning when she was publicly humiliated by Jesse St. James, her future star boyfriend, right before Regionals during her sophomore year at McKinley High School-although, she _did _still have nightmares about the mothers of those dead, unborn baby chicks coming after her...But, her world did not come to a tragic end when Santana Lopez informed her that Finn Hudson, her current boyfriend, had slept with the popular Latino during their Madonna assignment during sophomore year. And her world did not, surprisingly, explode and blow up when Finn Hudson dumped her for making out with Noah Puckerman just after she'd learned about Finn and Santana's sex lives.

All in all, Rachel liked to believe that she'd been doing a pretty good job of keeping her dramatics at a stand sill when it came to her love life. She didn't start wearing all black, and she didn't play Kelly Clarkson on repeat. She didn't lock herself in a bedroom, downing chocolate and Ben and Jerry's ice cream while she watched _Funny Girl _and _West Side Story _over and over again, despite the fact that she knew every single line, every lyric, and every note by heart in any version she could ever find. Instead, she'd put on a fake smile and entered school, giving herself one upbeat break-up song and acting as if she'd moved on.

Which, surprisingly, she had. She was no longer interested in Finn Hudson. She had no lingering feelings towards Jesse St. James. She simply didn't care about them which would explain why her world was still spinning and life was going on as usual.

Her life, did, however, come to a shocking halt when she learned that Noah Puckerman was now in a romantic relationship with Lauren Zizes who had 'rocked his world-no really'. It was disgusting, to know that Rachel had been ditched for Lauren freaking Zizes who had absolutely nothing on Rachel, as vain as that sounded. Then again, she was Rachel Berry and everybody knew how conceited she tended to be.

But, she did know that she was beautiful, and there was no reason for her to deny it or try to hide it. She had long, glossy, dark chocolate colored waves that fell somewhere between her shoulders and elbows in loose, subtle layers that were barely noticeable with full, blunt bangs that fell right above her carefully plucked and arched eyebrows. Her liquid chocolate eyes were large and bright, sparkling and covered by a mess of thick, full eyelashes that curled beautifully. Her red-pink, rosebud lips were full and pouty. Her only flaw was her large nose. But, she'd always thought that her other beneficial assets were enough to cover up her unseemly nose.

"Santana!" She snapped, her hands balled into tiny fists as she made her way towards the leggy, muscular Latino with the perfect face to match her flawless body. And, after having been kicked off the Cheerios, it was made clear that she had a quite trendy fashion sense.

"What do you want, Man Hands?" Santana asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she turned around with an overly exaggerated sigh, kicking her locker shut behind her with a harsh slam as her eyes narrowed at the tiny little brunette that she'd always tried her best not to waste any time with, outside of the required time she'd absolutely had to during Glee rehearsals.

"I want a make-over," Rachel said boldly, placing her hands on her hips and cocking one out as she bit her bottom lip, doing her very best to hold in any other comments she'd think to make. She found it worked best with most of the members of the glee club to keep her statements as short and sweet as possible. She even tried her very best to refrain from using large words, because she didn't want them to have any reason to say she thought that she was better than any of them, even though they were constantly turning to her as their 'star' when they knew they needed her to win.

Santana raised an eyebrow. "Go on," She nodded.

"I want Puckerman," Rachel shrugged simply. Santana nodded, signaling that that was all she needed to know. The tanned girl slowly looked Rachel up and down before slowly circling around her. When she was standing in front of her once again, she crossed her arms and shook her head.

"No way, it's not possible. I don't take on impossible cases," Santana sighed.

"What's that mean? Noah and I dated before, remember?" Rachel asked. "And when we were working on that music video, he kept trying to convince me to make-out with him and cheat on Jesse. And he just-"

"Okay-okay, stop, already. I get it. But, you're going to need more than just a make-over to get Puckerman away from that endangered white rhino he wants to be with so badly. Honestly, how he could say _anyone _rocked his world compared to _me _is beyond comprehension, but for it to be _Grimace? _Now, that's just a little bit insulting to me," Santana rolled her eyes.

"So you'll help me?" Rachel asked.

"Honestly, I've been looking for a way to get him off of that short leash popping fresh has got him on since she joined the freaking glee club. She's a bitch, and that's coming from a Grade A bitch like me," Santana rolled her eyes.

"Is that a yes?" Rachel wondered.

"On one condition," Santana said, turning her head and shouting out some names. "Britt-Britt! Z! Dave! Anthony!" She called, calling over Brittany Piece, a fellow glee club member and ex-cheerleader, Azimio Adams, a football player who had been one of Rachel's biggest bullies, David Karofsky, another glee club bully and football player, and Anthony Rashad, who was on friendlier terms with the glee clubs, and still played football.

"What do you want, Satan?" Karofsky asked, crossing her arms over his chest as he frowned at them. "I don't have a slushy for Berry today," He rolled his eyes.

"Karofsky, will you lay off of her-she's not that bad, alright? You don't even know her," Anthony defended Rachel with a smile aimed directly at her.

"San? What's going on?" Brittany frowned.

"Get to the point, we don't have all day to hang around a bunch of losers," Azimio replied.

"Berry here wants a make-over, and while Brittany and I can change her look and give her the bitchy personality she needs to get the guy she's after, I need the three of you to show that she's better than just a nerd in some sexy clothes who can snark 'em with the rest of them," Santana said. "So, are you going to help me or are we going to be revealing the secrets that I _know _none of you want spread around the school?" Santana asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What secrets?" Karofsky paled.

"You wouldn't dare," Azimio paused.

"What do you have on _me?" _Anthony wondered.

"Well," Santana began slowly. "I know exactly what your _type _is now, Dave," Santana smirked. "And, Azimio, I would _so _dare to reveal what you did after Puckerman specifically told you _not _to," She said smugly. "And, as for you, Anthony, I had nothing on you until right now. But, I'm pretty sure you don't want anybody to know that, because you _know _what people would say and what _certain _people would do if they found out," Santana winked. "So, are you helping me?" She asked, knowing their answers.

"Yes."

"Yes."

"Yes."

"Meet us in the parking lot tomorrow before school. Everything's going to begin there," Santana said as she hooked one arm through Rachel's, signaling for Brittany to take the other one. And then the three of them headed off.

"Tha-"

"Don't you even _dare," _Santana growled. "If I'm doing this, it means we're going to be friends from now on, got it?" She said, and all Rachel could do was nod.


	2. Santana's Plan

**She'll Never Be Me  
A Glee Fan Fiction  
Chapter 2**

Rachel shook her head at the new clothes Santana and Brittany had filled her closet with. Her make-up table had been raided and filled with only the colors that the two girls had deemed appropriate for her and her new 'look'. Even her shoes had been raided, but they'd just gotten rid of a couple pairs. As Santana had said "Who knew Berry would have such a killer shoe collection?"

She sighed as she selected that infamous black pleated mini skirt and took it from her closet, sliding it on over her black Victoria's Secret underwear. Then she grabbed a white button down, cropped blouse that ended just below her belly button, revealing a tiny sliver of her flat stomach and just enough of her red, lacy push-up bra that added to her cleavage. Her make-up was already done with smoky, glittery eyes and dark lips. She slipped on a pair of black open toe high heeled ankle boots and grabbed her oversized silver Coach purse, slipping it on over her shoulder just as she gave her hair another shake.

A horn honked outside and she took a deep breath, turning on her heel and making her way from the house and outside to Santana's red Volksewagon Passat. She climbed into the back seat, smiling at Brittany and Santana as Santana's Nikki Minaj playlist blared from the speakers of her car.

"Looking sexy-nice transition part 1 outfit," Santana called over her shoulder, her long, glossy black hair pin straight and pulled into two low ponytails. "It's just enough," She said as she pulled from the driveway and started speeding away.

"You look great too," Rachel said, observing Santana's lime green pencil mini skirt with the grey crop top that fell off her shoulders. She'd paired it with black knee high, spiky heeled boots and her make-up was neutral, making her face appear even tanner than usual. "You too, Britt," She smiled at Brittany's curly mane framing her face. Her outfit consisted of a hot pink tee shirt dress with black flats.

"No, seventeen," Brittany frowned, looking back at Rachel in confusion.

"She means that you look nice, Brittany," Santana laughed.

"Oh...thanks, Rach! You're two, also!" She said happily as the girls drove on.

* * *

Santana's plan involved more than just a shopping spree that had awarded Rachel a completely new wardrobe. It hadn't just involved a make-over with new make-up and hair styling tips. It also hadn't stopped with a personality change where Santana and Brittany had tutored her in how to be a queen bitch and a grade A bad ass. It also involved Rachel walking into school on Anthony's arm with Azimio and Karofsky walking behind them, each holding onto the arm of either Santana or Brittany. It involved Rachel making a big show of flirting with Anthony, Azimio, and Karofsky whenever Puck was around, and it involved teasing Puck as much as physically possible.

All in all, it was a brilliant plan, but Rachel doubted it would do anything other than piss Finn off and make him start some sort of fight between himself and another member of his football team. After all, this type of plan only worked when it was a sure guarantee that the other person wanted Rachel. And so far, all they knew about Puck was that he was whipped by a certain fat ass bitch named Lauren Zizes who lived to make him feel like shit.

But, Rachel refused to give up. She was going to make this plan work, and she didn't care what it took. So, when Anthony walked her to her first period class and she casually glanced over her shoulder to see that Puck was actually in class today, she stood on her tiptoes and gave Anthony a small kiss on the cheek, lingering just a second by his ear as she gave a little purr of gratitude before turning on her heel and strolling into the room, waltzing right back Puck as she ignored him calling out her name.

She took a seat right behind him instead, turning over her shoulder to notice a confused Quinn Fabray sitting besides her, arms crossed tightly over her chest as she frowned. Rachel gave her a happy little smile with a Santana-worthy wave as she turned her smile into a smirk.

Quinn may have gotten Finn Hudson, and at one point she may have even had Noah Puckerman, but Rachel refuse to let Quinn think she was the queen bitch of McKinley any longer. Rachel was taking that title from her. That was another part of her genius plan. It didn't matter that she didn't want Finn-Quinn had still cheated on Sam Evans with Finn, after talking shit about Santana for her own boy-crazy ways.

If Rachel and Santana were going to be friends, then Rachel was going to be a good friend and look out for her newest friend.

"How's Sam doing?" Rachel asked, her voice sounding bitter sweet as she questioned Quinn. Rachel didn't miss how Puck's hands tensed into a tighter fist at the mention of Sam Evans. And that made her realize something.

When Puck had gotten out of juvie, he had had to fight for his spot back on the football team as a starter, since FInn had come back and taken the quarterback spot from Sam. While Sam was still a starter, he'd taken Puck's old position. And Puck had gotten a spot back on the team, but he no longer happened to be his old position. In stead, he'd had to settle for something else. And Sam had swept in and stolen Quinn right out from under him. Besides that, once again, Puck's vocal talents were forgotten when Sam and Quinn got a duet together at Sectionals.

Maybe using Anthony, Azimio, and Karofsky could convince Puck that Rachel wasn't just a good little prude of a girl, but using Sam Evans would show that Rachel would rather be with Sam than with Puck.

"What's it to you?"

"Well, I thought after your little cheating scandal, he could use a little...cheering up," Rachel said with a coy wink.

She smirked as Puck's knuckles slowly began to turn white at this statement as he clenched his fists even tighter.

* * *

"Berry," Santana said at lunch as the group sat at a table in the center of the cafeteria. "You are an effing genius and I'm one hundred percent proud to call you a best friend!" She said, reaching over and giving the brunette a little hug. Rachel had sat down at lunch and quickly started to fill Santana in on her plan to make Puck jealous with a boy that had already stolen so much from him. Rachel just wasn't sure how she should start the little plan out, but clearly Santana had just needed the idea to come up with a new plan in a matter of seconds. Her eyes widened and her smirk grew as Sam passed by the lunch table, looking for a place to sit. She nudged Rachel.

"SAM!" Rachel called, pushing her stand back and standing up. Sam turned around, his bleached blonde, heavily streaked hair shaggy and surfer-ish around his face. He frowned in confusion as he noticed who had called his name. "Come sit with us," She beckoned, dropping back down into her seat, barely noticing that Santana had slid over to leave an empty seat besides Rachel.

"Are you sure that's okay?" Sam asked as he dropped into the seat next to Rachel, taking in the three football players across from him and the two ex-cheerleaders sandwiching Rachel and himself in the middle on the opposite side of the table.

"Of course it is," Santana said brightly. "We're all friends here," She said happily. "Anyways, Rachel, what were you telling us about that new duet you wanted to sing in Glee today?" She asked cheerfully, quickly changing the subject. "Some country song...um..._Remind Me, _right? The new Carrie Underwood and Toby Keith song?" she said, her eyebrows forming a little V as she played dumb.

"Brad Paisley," Sam corrected quickly.

"Oh, you know it?" Santana asked.

"Yeah, I love that song," Sam nodded.

"Well, that's perfect then," Santana said. "Rachel needed a partner for it, because Quinn's put an end to her singing with Finn anymore, you know?" She said.

"Oh, San, I don't think Sam wants to sing a song with-"

"No, no-yeah, I'll sing with you, Rach," He said, turning to study her for the first time sing sitting down, her eyes zeroing in right on her chest as he spoke.

Normally, Rachel would be ready to slap him across the face and storm off, pulling her shirt tighter around her chest. But, this was all a part of the plan, so she just let it happen, leaning against the table and smiling brightly at him.

"Aw, Sam," She said, running a hand through his hair. "You're such a sweety," She purred.


	3. Mr Shuester's Assignment

_**She'll Never Be Me  
A Glee Fan Fiction  
Chapter 3**_

Rachel Berry prided herself in never getting nervous before a performance. The one she was about to perform, however, was about to ruin that streak. All she could focus on was what would happen if she and Sam didn't have the chemistry that she and Puck had had during their last duet. She worried about being a little too obvious with her plan. She wasn't sure if it was wise to sing a duet as her first premier as a mini-Santana or if choosing a country song would give the desired affect. Besides the fact that she'd barely worked on the song at all, as Santana had just thrown this idea upon her at the same time she'd informed Sam about it, she just couldn't imagine acting intimate with Sam. Especially when Puck was so close by.

But, as the music started and she noticed Puck's arm dangling on the back of Lauren's chair, she decided that all really was fair in love and war after all. She highly doubted that Puck was honestly into Lauren. It just didn't seem possible in her mind. She was absolutely sure that he had to be using her to make somebody jealous, and she was just going to allow her hopes to take over her logical side and tell her that he was trying to get her jealous. It did bug her just a little bit that it was working, but she figured she was doing the same, in hopes he'd be as angry as she was.

_"We didn't care if people stared/We'd make out in a crowd somewhere/Somebody'd tell us to get a room/It's hard to believe that was me and you,"_ Sam started the song, plucking at his guitar as he stared at Rachel from the corner of his eye. _"Now we keep saying that we're okay/But I don't wanna settle for good not great/I miss the way it felt back then, I wanna feel that way again. Been so long, bet you'd forget the way I used to kiss your neck."_

_"Remind me-remind me,"_ Rachel sang, glancing over at him with a small, shy smile as she sat with her ankles crossed on the edge of the piano, her arms folded across her chest. Sam was located on the other side of the room by the door.

_"So on fire, so in love, way back when we couldn't get enough," _He sang out, turning to full on face her.

_"Remind me, remind me," _Rachel sang out, lowering her head slightly. "_Remember the airport, dropping me off? We were kissing goodbye and we couldn't stop?" _She sang.

_"I felt bad 'cause you missed your flight," _Sam sang as Rachel dropped herself from the piano slowly and turned to face him, both of them starting to give small, half smiles towards one another as the music played.

_"But that meant we had one more night," _The sang together, their voices joining in a beautiful harmony, marveling Rachel with how incredible they managed to sound together. Not as great at she and Puck had, but surprisingly better than she and Finn had been together. As they sang their lyrics together, they began to slowly make their ways towards one another, one step for each syllable.

_"Do you remember how it used to be? We'd turn out the lights and we didn't just sleep," _Rachel gave a small little coy smirk as she winked a playful eye towards Sam, stopping her strides as she stood still, her eyes focused on him as she tried her very best not to look towards the direction of the heated stare coming towards her. She wasn't sure if it was from Finn or Puck, but she refused to turn her head and see if she was getting the desired reaction from this duet. It just wouldn't fit with her goal. So, she kept her eyes on Sam as she imagined him as Puck.

_"Remind me, baby, remind me," _Sam crooned, plucking at his guitar as he took three small steps towards Rachel, making the distance between the two of them unbalanced. Rachel was once again surprised at the apparent chemistry they seemed to have while working together. Their voices just melted together and they acted as if they'd been work on the choreography for the song for weeks, rather than making it all up as they went along. It just seemed to fit with the song, and Sam was staring at her with an intensity she'd only gotten from singing with Jesse.

_"So on fire, so in love/That look in your eyes that I miss so much," _Rachel sighed, giving her head a small shake as she lowered it towards the ground, willing a small glance from the corner of her eye towards Puck before looking back at the ground, wanting to stomp her foot and swear at the fact that he was focused on Lauren, rather than jealously glaring at Sam and Rachel.

_"Remind me, baby, remind/I wanna feel that way again," _Sam sang as his voice grew stronger and more powerful, walking towards Rachel until he reached her, turning to face their audience.

_"Yeah, I wanna hold you close," _Rachel sang, winding her arms through his to mimic his and Quinn's duet guitar-playing move.

_"Oh, if you still love me, don't just assume I know," _They sang together, their voices blending to absolute perfection.

_"Baby, remind me-remind me/Do you remember the way it felt?" _Rachel sang out, unwinding herself from him and starting to walk away, a fierce look in her eyes as she sang, tears making her eyes twinkle.

_"You mean back when we couldn't control ourselves?" _While Rachel's voice and expression was full of a longing sadness, Sam's was bittersweet. At these lyrics, he had a sad smile plastered on his face and his voice gave way to a slightly amused and halfway bitter laugh as he sang. A part of Rachel wondered if Sam was singing this while thinking of Quinn, as she was doing with Puck.

_"Remind me," _Rachel sang, followed by Sam's echo (_**yeah, remind me)**_ before she went on to sing her next verse. _"All those things that you used to do/That made me fall in love with you/Remind me, oh, baby, remind me," _She belted out, starting to walk towards him again, standing besides him as she looked up at him with wide, hopeful eyes that were still filled with tears.

_"Yeah you'd wake up in my old t-shirt/All those mornings I was late to work/Remind me," _Sam sang, being joined by Rachel for their next set of lyrics, _"Oh, baby, remind me," _They went on.

_"Oh, baby, remind me, baby, remind me,"_ Rachel belted on out, her voice being as powerful as she could possibly make it be while still being soft and sweet, turning away from Sam as she sang.

_"Yeah, you'd wake up in my old t-shirt," _Sam sang.

_"Oh, yeah, remind me," _Rachel sang.

_"Baby, remind me," _Sam finished.

When the song ended, Sam and Rachel took their seats between Santana and Brittany, side by side, as Mr. Shuester made his way to the front of the room, smiling at them all cheerfully, acting oblivious to the tension between a glaring, jealous couple that consisted of Finn and Quinn, a pissed off Rachel who hated Puck for flirting with Lauren who was ignoring him the entire time, and a lovestruck Sam who was focused on Rachel.

"Alright, guys," Mr. Shue said. "For this week's assignment, I think you should all take a lesson from Rachel and Sam," He said.

"We already covered duets this year, Mr. Shue," Mercedes Jones groaned from the back of the room. "And I still say that while Rachel and Finn totally rigged it so Sam and Quinn would win, Santana and I were robbed," She concluded.

"Not duets," Mr. Shue shook his head, ignoring the diva's complaining. "I want you all to sing a song about breaking up, where you want the person back. You're all like Fleetwood Mac. Breaking up, getting back together, dating somebody else's ex. You have more romantic mixes than Fleetwood Mac ever could have dreamed of, and I'm sure that some of you had a break-up that didn't work the way you wanted it to. Judging by the emotion Sam and Rachel displayed in that song, it's going to help us connect to our set list for competition as well." He shrugged.

That was what they all loved about Mr. Shue. Despite the fact that his assignments were stupid and seemed pointless, they really were just what the members of the club needed. He may act totally oblivious to the drama that was happening in his club, and it may sometimes seem like he didn't care about them, but he did. He paid them all close attention, and he always made sure his assignments reflected the problem. He listened and he responded, without making it an obvious attempt at a learning experience. And that was why they all ended up getting the outcome he wanted for them-their happiness. They knew the assignments weren't mandatory, but the ones who needed to learn from the results always came through for him.


	4. Rachel's Plan

**_She'll Never Be Me  
A Glee Fan Fiction  
Chapter 4_**

When Glee was dismissed that day, Rachel was gathering her things in her bag before meeting up with Santana and Brittany by the door, heading off in their short, skimpy little skirts and tight, revealing skirts.

"Hey, Rachel!" She paused right outside of the doorway and turned around to find Sam hurrying towards her. Santana and Brittany each raised an eyebrow at her as they paused besides her. "Can I talk to you for a second?" Sam wondered.

"Can you guys meet me outside?" Rachel asked her friends, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Given," Santana nodded as she hooked pinkies with Brittany and made her way from the school.

"What's up, Sam?" Rachel smiled, running a hand through her hair.

"I was just wondering...do you think that, you know...maybe, you wanted to...I don't know, like, go out sometime?" He asked, his hands in his pockets as he stared at the ground. "Like, with me...on a date?" He asked, shrugging slightly as he looked up at her with a sheepish grin on his face.

"How's Breadstix tomorrow night at...say, nine?" Rachel wondered, searching through her bag for a pen. She plucked it out of a pocket and reached for his hand, scribbling her number on the palm. "Call me, alright?" She winked as she turned on her heel, strolling towards the door.

And she only barely noticed how Noah Puckerman was standing in the doorway, clenching his fists as his eyes focused directly on the scene before him, his hands clenched into two extremely tight fists with the knuckles turning white. She only barely heard the low growl that he released when she grabbed Sam's hand. But, she did notice, just a little, and she would be lying if she said it didn't give her just a little thrill.

* * *

The next day in Glee, Rachel performed her solo for that week's assignment, wearing a short black bodice skirt that hugged her ass perfectly and a cropped, off the shoulder red and black stripped shirt that read DIVA on it with black open toe pumps.

_"Uh, mmm, yeah, la la la la laaaaa, uh!" _Rachel started, her back to the other members in the club as she stood with her hands on her hips, one leg bent at the knee with a hip cocked out. _"Hey, boy you never had much game,"_ She glanced over her shoulder at Puck with a smirk on this first phrase before turning right around to continue with the first verse. "_Thought I needed to upgrade/So I went and walked away-way-way/Uh, now I see you've been hanging out/With that other girl in town/Looking like a pair of clowns, clowns, clowns-uh," _She sang with cute little hip shaking going on with her words.

_"Remember all the things that you and I did first?" _She leaned forward. _"And now you're doing them with her," _She pouted. _"Remember all the things that you and I did first? You got me-got me like this-uh," _She stood up and stomped her foot. _"And now you're taking her to every restaurant/And everywhere we went come on!" _She balled her hands into fists and stomped her foot again. _"And now you're taking her to ever restaurant/You got me-got me like this-uh!"_

_"Boy, you can say anything you wanna/I don't give a shh, no one else can have ya/I want you back, I want you back wa-want you, want you back/Uh-I broke it off thinking you'd be cryin'/Now I feel like shh looking at you flyin'/I want you back, I want you back, wa-want you, want you back/__Please, this ain't even jealousy/She ain't got a thing on me/Trying to rock them ugly jeans-jeans-jeans," _She sang, rolling her eyes towards Lauren and gesturing towards her with a simply little cock of the head at the insult about the jeans before twirling around to go back to her little rocking out, sexy performance. SHe noticed that this time, not only was Finn staring at her, but Sam and Puck. But she acted like she wasn't paying attention.

"_You clearly didn't think this through/If what I've been told is true/You'll be crawling back like boo hoo hoo/Remember all the things that you and I did first/And now you're doing them with her/Remember all the things that you and I did first/You got me, got me like this/And now you're taking her to every restaurant/And everywhere we went come on/ And now you're taking her to ever restaurant/You got me-got me like this/Boy you can say anything you wanna/I don't give a sh, no one else can have ya/I want you back, I want you back, wa-want you, want you back/I broke it off thinking you'd be crying/Now I feel like sh looking at you flying/I want you back, want you back, wa-want you want you back," _She sang on, making her way towards the other glee club members.

_"OH, I thought you'd still be mine/When I kissed you goodbye/Oh, and you might be with her/But I still had you first," _Rachel sang, hanging over the back of Finn's chair, leaning her head on his shoulder. Then she nodded towards Artie Abrams for his part.

_"Let's go-Astro! We used to be, but now there's a separation between you and me/Baby I'm moving on to another girl that understands me more/Dated her in front your place so you can see it all/I remember the times when we used to bond/But I never realized that you wanted to be mine/So I gave her the ring, instead of you, nickname too/I can tell that you're upset because it ain't you/Met a new girl and I gave her my heart/Not noticing that you wanted me from the very start/You want me back? We can just be friends, don't try this thing all over again," _He rapped.

_"Boy, you can say anything you wanna/I don't give a sh, no one else can have ya/I want you back/I want you back/Wa-want you, want you back/I broke it off thinking you'd be crying/Now I feel like sh looking at you flying/I want you back/I want you back/Wa-want you back/Let me know/I want you back/I want you back/Wa-want you, want you back/ I want you back/I want you back/Wa-want you want you back!" _She ended the song breaking away from Finn as she danced her way back towards the front of the room, locking eyes with Puck as she smirked right at him, crossing her arms and sticking a leg out, bent at the knee. "Does this sound like a helicopter?" She wondered, puckering her lips and purring, moving her lips just enough to make the same sound Cher LLoyd had.


	5. The Date

**She'll Never Be Me  
A Glee Fan Fiction  
Chapter 5**

Rachel checked her reflection one last time, loving how full her hair looked after its blow out, before puckering her red lips in the mirror and turned on her heel, bouncing away to meet Sam outside of her house for their date. She was wearing a black, off the shoulder mini dress that was casually sexy with black peep toe heels. Santana had insisted on dousing her in body glitter before leaving the Berry residence, and Brittany had forced Rachel into a chair as she teased and yanked at her hair, curling and straightening it to her liking, poisoning her lungs with all the hairspray she'd put in. And then Brittany had had to attack her with all the make-up in the variety of pinks and reds.

She exited her house and made her way towards Sam's old Mustang, crawling into the backseat and smiling at the blonde. And then she frowned.

Sam was a sweet guy-he really was. And Quinn had cheated on him like a bitch. He didn't deserve that. Nobody deserved that. Sam really was nice, though, and he'd been nothing but caring to Rachel since he'd moved to Lima, despite the lies that had been fed to him by his psychotic ex-girlfriend who wanted Rachel to be alone, ugly, and turn into a cat-lady, just because boys liked Rachel for more than her looks. She didn't want to lie to him any longer. He didn't deserve to be lied to and used in order to make another guy jealous.

"Sam, I need to tell you something, and I should tell you before we leave, because you'll probably hate me and think that I'm just as bad as Quinn for what I'm about to say," She sighed, running a hand through her hair. He raised an eyebrow, turning towards her slightly. "I'm in love with Puck, and I foolishly listened to Santana to use you to make him jealous," She whispered.

"You thought I would hate you for that? Santana told me that forever ago. That was why I went for you-I'm trying to make Quinn jealous," Sam rolled his eyes, holding back laughter. Rachel smiled at him in relief.

"So, we're both using one another in order to make the person we really want jealous?" She asked.

"Guess so," He shrugged at her with a careless grin on his face. The two shared a smile as Rachel leaned over and hugged me. "Are we good now? We can go to Breadstix? Because I'm starving," He said.

"Wow, it's just like dating Finn again. Football players really do eat non stop, don't they?" She teased him. "Okay, so we're both using one another...where does that put us?" She asked, suddenly growing serious. "I mean, what are we supposed to tell people and how are we supposed to act and...I know, I'm over analyzing this a little, Santana tells me that all the time, but I'm a very method actor and I like being prepared," She shrugged.

"That's actually a good question. I think, if you don't mind, that we should just tell people we're dating. We can be honest about when it started-tonight. As for how we act in school, well, just like how we would if we were dating. And besides, you and I are sort of friends, aren't we? So our conversations will be pretty close to normal. We'll just kiss and hold hands and...oh, I know, you can wear my football jacket tomorrow, to really rub it in their faces, you know?" He said brightly as he drove. He'd pulled out of the driveway awhile ago and had been driving for a few minutes now, when Rachel squealed, yelling for him to turn into the parking lot, causing him to almost get into an accident.

"What the hell?" He asked. "Why are we at the arcade? Not that I'm not excited about that, because I'm a dude and dudes love arcades and all, but why would you want us to turn and go to the..."He trailed off, a smile full of realization spreading across his face as he followed her gaze, looking directly at the truck that she was now pointing at. "Puckerman's here," He nodded his approval as he wrapped an arm around her and studied her for a second. "Are you dressed for an arcade?" he frowned slightly.

"I'm a girl," Rachel shrugged. "We always come prepared," She announced, holding up her oversized purse and yanking out a pair of black, denim hot pants that she slid on under her dress expertly, not even giving him the slightest glance. Then she yanked out a white tank top and pulled it on over her dress, sliding out of it quickly. "Give me your jacket," She said, holding her hand out as he shrugged out of his letterman jacket. He handed it to her and she slid it on, after trading her heels for a pair of flats.

"Why the hell do girls bring changes of clothes on dates?" Sam asked.

"Think about it. If you're a girl and you sleep with a guy and end up staying with him the whole night, do you really want to be wearing the outfit you wore on your date to school the next day? And, by bringing the bag, you can lie to your parents easily by saying that you're going to sleep over at a friend's later on," She shrugged off his question as if it were common sense and he were stupid for asking.

"That's actually pretty smart. I mean, guys have it easy-we have so many extra sweatshirts and shirts in our backseats that if we end up spending the night with our date, we just recycle jeans and replace the shirt with something from our car," He told her.

"Which is why girls always smell nice and fresh while boys smell disgusting," Rachel wrinkled her nose in distaste as she opened the door to his car and climbed out, waiting for him to get out of the car. When he walked over to her side to meet her, she gave him a long kiss on the mouth. "If my make-ups smudged, it's going to bug Noah even more. He always said the one benefit of making his friendship with Finn worse by making out with me was how I kissed," She shrugged in explanation as she grabbed his hand and started walking towards the arcade. "And I think we all know how he is when it comes to sharing. He's a bit of a child in most of the traditional senses," She shrugged with a teasing smile on her face.

* * *

The Lima Arcade was not a typical arcade. Sure, it had games like pinball and Pacman, and of course it had airhockey, but it also had skiball, those basketball hoops, football practice games, poker games, Wheel of Fortune, Deal or No Deal, and Dance Dance Revolution and a pool table. It was the absolute favorite place for a teenage boy at McKinley to spend a weekday night, especially when he was without a date.

Noah Puckerman, however, was on a date, with his sort-of-girlfriend, Lauren Zizes, and they were in an intense game of air hockey when he heard the strange, high pitched squeal of a female-and not the ones who hung out at the arcade with low voices and no sense of humor. This squeal was too familiar. It belonged to one Rachel Berry, and it made him look up and allow Lauren the winning point. But he barely even noticed her gloating, because his eyes were locked on Rachel, in her tiny little shorts and some guy's letterman jacket, who was racing inside the arcade with Sam Evans on her heels, shouting something about her going down in one game or another.

He clenched his fists tightly as he watched the blonde haired, large mouth boy wrap his arms around Rachel and whisper something into her ear. He scowled at Rachel's giggle and nod to whatever he'd said to her. And when Sam led her over to the pool table, he even went as far as to growl.

Rachel and him weren't dating, but that didn't mean some other guy could move in on what belonged to him. Rachel was _his _girl and everybody in school knew that. Did they all want a chance to date her? Most definitely. Did they all think she was hot and good enough for sex? Duh. But, did they make a move on her? No, they didn't. Because they were too afraid of what Puck would do. It hadn't always been this way, of course, but after Puck had made out with her sophomore year and realized how incredible she was just at kissing, she'd been deemed as his.

Apparently Trouty Mouth hadn't gotten the memo yet.

"Puckerman, what's wrong?" Lauren frowned. This was about the closest she ever came to being the concerned, caring girlfriend that Rachel had been to him during their short, week long relationship.

"Nothing...let's just...let's go play poker," He said, gesturing towards the poker games that people could play. They were located by the pool table, where Rachel was leaning against the table with Sam's arms wrapped around her, helping her use the pool stick. His scowl deepened at the sight as he walked away, not even bothering to check and see if Lauren was following him. Because, quite frankly, he just didn't care if she was following. He wanted to be closer to Sam and Rachel, and he wanted to know just what was going on with them. Of course, he also didn't want them to know that he'd seen them already, because that would make it look as if he actually cared.

"Poker? Why would you want to play poker at the arcade? Those games are a rip off," Lauren shook her head, standing her ground. Puck shrugged her off as he kept walking. He honestly didn't care what she thought, because he had more important issues. He needed to go make sure he wasn't losing one Rachel Berry to a certain blonde haired country boy next door.

"Wait a second, is that Hobbit? With Trouty Mouth? Is that why you want to go over there?" Lauren asked. Damn, was she always that loud? Puck winced, praying that Rachel and Sam didn't hear her. "Puckerman? Do you want to go say hi to them or something?" She asked, her voice growing louder as she walked towards him. "Come on, let's go say hi so we can head out. Because kicking your ass in every game we play isn't as much fun as it may sound like," She rolled her eyes as she reached the pool table.

"Lauren! Noah! Oh my god, what a surprise seeing you guys here," Rachel said brightly as she stood up straight, leaning against her pool stick and looking nothing short of sexy. Damn, there was something about pool that made every girl about ten times hotter than they really were.

"Hey, Berry," Puck muttered, stuffing his hands into his pockets, bringing his shoulders up to his ear as he lowered his head. "You're out with Evans or something?" He wondered and instantly wanted to kick himself for being so stupid. He was acting as if he actually cared what the two were doing. And that made him seem interested in them. "Not that I care or anything, but I just...well, I...never mind," He muttered, hating himself for getting even dumber as his words came out of his mouth. Why did he suck so much? He shook his head, wondering how hard it would be to just start this conversation over.

"Oh, yeah, Sam and I are dating now," Rachel grinned, and he noticed that her lipstick was smudged.

He mentally swore. Those lips were his. Sam wasn't supposed to be kissing them. She belonged to him-well, when it came to her lips and who she was kissing. It just wasn't right that anybody else got to kiss her. He was the one who'd put her as the number one kisser in school, not Sam, not Finn. So why should anybody else get to experiment and see if he was right? He was freaking Noah effing Puckerman, and he'd kissed close to every girl in school. If he claimed that Rachel was the ultimate kisser in school, then she was, without a doubt, the kissing queen of McKinley. And nobody should even think about trying to steal her from him. Evans had a lot of nerve, trying to take away his girl.

"Yeah, I don't know how you ever let her go," Sam said, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her closer to him. She giggled-Puck knew how very ticklish she could be when it came to her waist-and Sam leaned in to give her a kiss on the cheek. Puck's fists tightened, his knuckles turning white, as he clenched his jaw. There was something very wrong here, and it was that Rachel was with Sam Evans not himself. He needed to change that.

* * *

"Did you see his _face?" _Rachel giggled as she leaned into Sam for support on their way out of the arcade a few hours later. This was probably the most Rachel had laughed, and the most real smile she'd flashed for a long period of time, in weeks. Actually, probably sense her break-up with Finn, if she was being honest. The only exceptions were those rare sleepovers she'd have with Kurt and Mercedes. Those allowed for real laughter. _  
_

"I was a little busy trying to _not s_tare at his pants...and man, that just sounded gay," Sam whined as he opened Rachel's car door for her and ushered her inside. "But, seriously, it was hard to _not _notice how much he wanted you in there. I thought he was going to push me aside and take you right then and there on the pool table. And from the look Lauren was giving you, it was clear I wasn't the only one who understood that. Speaking of which, are you sure you want to do this? I mean, make him jealous and steal him from her? Not that either of them is that into the other one...but, still, I mean, Lauren's pretty scary, and you're so damn small. She could sit on you and kill you," Sam said.

"You're forgetting that I happen to have Santana as a best friend now, and that crazy little Latino's got razor blades hidden in her hair. For real, they're just all up in there," She shrugged as he climbed into the car besides her.

"Didn't Santana get her ass kicked by Lauren, over Puck?" Sam asked with a confused grin on his face. He was so innocent, it was almost adorable sometimes. Rachel just laughed, relaxing as he joined in. "But, really, are you sure you're not afraid of Lauren, because I have to admit that I'm pretty damn afraid of what the hell Finn's going to do to me if this crazy plan works and I manage to steal Quinn away from him. Didn't he kick _Puckerman's _ass over her last year? That's what I heard, anyways," Sam asked as he started the car.

"Noah wasn't actually fighting back. He knew he was wrong, and he didn't really want Quinn," Rachel explained.

"I thought he was in love with her last year or something crazy like that? That's what I heard...I really hate having to go by gossip to understand this club. It's a little depressing, since they all like me more than they like Finn-right? I mean, they do like me more than Finn, don't they? I'm better than him?" Sam asked, suddenly very concerned about being liked more than Finn.

"Of course we like you more than Finn. There's honestly just no competition there," She rolled her eyes. "And he did claim to love her, but everybody knew that that was only because of the baby. Noah James Puckerman does not do love. Not for Christians anyways. He's into Jewish girls. What most people may not know about him is that he actually usually cares about the girls he dates-or, well, sleeps with is the better term. BUt, he will only date a Jewish girl. He has some silly oath that he made to himself years ago. I'm honestly the only girlfriend he's ever had, with the exception of Quinn due to the baby, and now Lauren. And, only I know that he made that oath to make his mother proud of him," Rachel said.

"Puckerman's a momma's boy?" Sam asked, his eyes growing wide as he turned to face her, pulling out of the parking lot and onto the main street. It was a little funny, how careful Sam was when driving. Puck may care about his truck a little too much, but he was a reckless driver.

"He's not a momma's boy!" Rachel defended. "His dad bailed when he was, like, ten, and ever since his mom's been doing her best to raise him and his little sister while working round the clock. It hasn't been easy for him in his life, and his mom barely has time for him. She's never come to a glee performance so far, and as far as I know, she's never seen him play football, basketball, or baseball since high school started. Maybe even middle school, all because of work. She doesn't get how good he is," She shrugged as Sam drove.

"What does that have to do with him wanting to date a Jewish girl in order to please her?" Sam frowned, clearly confused. Rachel sighed, running a hand through her hair as she went on to explain.

"His mom's really big on Jewish traditions, and Noah may not be the best Jew, but he works hard in trying to keep true to his religion. The whole reason he ever even asked me out was because I was Jewish, and his mom had made a comment about why he couldn't just find a nice, Jewish girl to bring home. Of course, I'm the only Jewish female in the school, so I was his only option. But, besides that, his mom's been trying to get him and I together since she met me. According to Noah-we used to be quite close, even when he was a bully, you know, but that before Lauren came around, of course-she has an album where she's planning out wedding already," Rachel explained.

"Doesn't that make you feel shitty? That he only wanted to go out with you because he was trying to make his mom happy? I mean, it doesn't mean that he ever actually liked you, right?" Sam frowned, trying to understand what was happening in this conversation. Sam was easily confused most of the time, and girls always managed to mess him up.

"It shows that he's capable of caring about something other than himself or his reputation," Rachel said softly.

Neither of them spoke after that, as they focused on just what she'd said. Well, Rachel focused on her statement and analysis about Noah Puckerman. Sam was trying to figure out what it was about Rachel Berry that made people dislike her. From what he'd seen, she was nice, sweet, and caring. Besides any of that, though, she was gorgeous with an incredible body, which was something that was very important to high school boys when trying to determine who they were going to be nice to.


	6. School

**She'll Never Be Me  
A Glee Fan Fiction  
Chapter 6  
_Shout out to iamastar for giving me this incredible idea!_  
**

"Hey, Sam?" Rachel asked the next morning when she slid into his car, his letterman jacket wrapped around her shoulders. "You're locker's next to Puck's, isn't it?" She questioned as he pulled out of her driveway and started to drive towards the school.

"Yeah, it's right in between Puck's and Finn's...why?" He asked.

"Doesn't Finn usually always have Quinn with him when he stops to make a locker run? I mean, they're always together at school and all..."Rachel asked him, raising an eyebrow as if to advise him to hurry up and get the hint because the only way she could be more obvious was if she shouted her idea out from the top of the school. Or perhaps if she literally spelled it out for him in the sky with the clouds. Then again, nobody had ever claimed that Sam Evans was one of the smartest boys in the school. Next to Brittany, he was probably the dumbest person in all of McKinley. Maybe even the entire population of Lima, Ohio, but Rachel didn't really want to get into just how stupid the blonde boy was.

"Yeah, but I really don't see what my locker neighbors and their lackeys has to-oh, wait a second. Are you hinting that you and I should make out at my locker so that Puck and Quinn can see us together and have no choice but to actually look at it and say something about it?" He asked, a new light shining in his eyes as he pulled into the school's parking lot.

"That's exactly what I'm thinking. Are you willing to give it a try?" She asked, running a hand through her hair as she stared down at her dark denim skin-tight skinny jeans just in case he said that he didn't want to make out with her in such a public location. She could understand that, but it didn't mean she actually wanted to hear it. It would just prove another boy who didn't want to be with her. Another boy who was ashamed to be seen with her. Another boy who cared more about his reputation than her.

"Make out with a hot girl to make the girl I'm trying to piss off jealous? Hell ya, I'm willing to give it a try. Especially since you're such a damn good kisser," Sam grinned at her as he threw open his car door and got out, rushing over to her side of the car and opened it for her, bowing at the waist and gesturing with his arms. "Madame," He said teasingly, causing her to giggle as she climbed out of the car and took his hand in her own.

"You are such a nerd," She told him with an eye roll as they started walking towards the school, hand in hand, all eyes focused on the blonde haired football player who had lost Quinn Fabray to Finn Hudson because the ex-head cheerleader was nothing more than a liar and a cheater, walking down the hallway with Finn's ex-girlfriend who had always been the school's punching bag when it came to bullying, until Santana Lopez and Brittany Pierce had taken her under their wing, turning her into the hottest bitch to ever make her way through the halls of McKinley high school. The news would be all over school by first period. Sam Evans and Rachel Berry were officially a couple.

"But I'm _your _nerd," He whispered into her ear in a deep growl as they reached her locker, where he pushed her up against the cool metal, his hands finding their way to her hips, as he leaned in and kissed her.

"Sam," She giggled, reaching towards his shoulders and pushing him off of her slightly. "He's not even on his way towards his locker yet. And neither is she. We don't need to start any of this yet, silly," She said, glancing over his shoulder as she tried to find a glimpse of the leather jacket clad football player or the blonde haired beauty. "There's no need to try and oversell it or anything like that," She reminded him, shaking her head as he stared down at her, an amused grin on his rather large mouth that always seemed to know what it was doing when he kissed her.

"The more we make-out, the more realistic our relationship is," He shrugged.

"Well, that is true. I mean, we really do need to go for the believability if this is going to work," She nodded her agreement. "Oh, I just him him walk in! And Finn's car just pulled into a parking space. Let's go," She said, releasing her hold on him as he leaned back in towards her, placing another kiss on her lips as she slid her tongue into his mouth.

"Hey, Evans, do you think you could take a breath for air for a second so I could-Berry?" Puck asked as he tapped Sam on the shoulder and the couple pulled apart, just as Quinn and Finn entered the school, Quinn's eyes locking immediately on the two of them.

"Oh, hello there, Noah. I'm sorry. I didn't realize that Sam's locker was so close to your own," Rachel said brightly as she stepped in Sam's arms.

"Sorry, man. I just can't help myself with her sometimes. She's such a damn good kisser, you know?" Sam shrugged as Finn stepped up to his locker with Quinn. "I don't get where she learned how to do that. She's the best kisser I've ever had any experience with," He said and even though Rachel knew he was only saying it to bother Quinn, it made her blush and giggle a little bit at the praise, even if it might have been nothing more than a lie based on trying to anger an ex-girlfriend who the blonde wanted back. Or at least wanted to piss off.

Puck clenched a fist as he reached for his lock, his knuckles turning white, and he fumbled around with his lock a little bit before finally getting it open, a snarl etched out across his face as he stared into it blankly, clutching the door as tightly as possible with one hand, the other still clenched in that tight fist, both of his hands turning white from the strain. Rachel smirked as Sam let go of her to open his own locker and grab his things quickly, hiding his amused grin as Quinn crossed her arms and frowned, pointedly staring anywhere but at Sam as he grabbed his things, slammed his locker shut, and grabbed Rachel before starting off down the hallway again, giving Puck one last apology.

"Keep it away from my locker next time," Puck growled, his teeth still clenched tightly as he spoke.

"Oh, my god," Rachel giggled when they were out of earshot for the trio of people they were doing their very best to piss off and make jealous. "Did you see Noah's face? I thought he was going to explode!" She giggled.

"And Quinn? Damn, she wouldn't even look at us, she was so mad. I mean, especially since I wasn't into all that PDA shit with her. Well, sucks to be her. She's probably asking Finn all sorts of questions right now trying to boost her own ego. She does that when she gets really jealous of you, you know? Starts asking to be compared to you," He rolled his eyes.

"Your little plan, Rachel Berry, is working ten times better than I ever would have assumed a plan made by such a naive little girl ever would have for a sex scandal. I just walked by Finn's locker and Quinn is throwing an absolute hissy fit over the fact that you look ten kinds of hot and that Sam's all over you and thinks you're an amazing kisser. And Finn actually agreed with him, in case you were wondering. As for Puck? He just slammed his locker and stormed away in the opposite direction, mumbling something about the bro code and shit like that," Santana rolled her eyes.

"We are incredible," Rachel said happily, a bright, broad smile spreading across her face as she reached out for a high five from Sam, who met her hand with a bright grin of his own before leaning in to place his own kind of congratulations on her-a kiss, directly on the lips. It was just a fast little peck that was barely anything more than a brush of his lips across her own, but it was still a kiss all the same and it wasn't one that was required for the sake of making a certain mohawked boy all kinds of jealous or in order to make a very blonde popular queen bitch as angry and jealous as possible. It was just because. It was the type of kiss a real couple would share with one another.

"Damn, if I didn't know any better, I'd think the two of you were actually serious about this whole relationship of yours." Santana rolled her eyes. "All that's missing are matching outfits and the registration for your wedding. Would you like some his and hers things?" She said sarcastically as she hooked arms with Rachel, joining the hand-holding couple on their walk down the hallway.

"You are so obnoxious," Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Now you know what we all thought when we had to deal with you for an entire year of the Finn-Hudson-Notice-Me circus." Santana replied with an eye roll of her own aimed at Rachel.

"I was not that desperate!" Rachel protested. "And it was mostly his own fault, because he was an ass whole he kept leading me on. Do you know how rude that was? He took me on dates, he kissed me, he told me he liked me and that I was beautiful. God, he was such a player-and then he was clearly so in love with her that he believed her stupid lie about who the father of her child was. Seriously, as if sperm could literally go for a nice little swim in the hot tub in order for them to get her pregnant without them actually sleeping together?" Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Oh, but you were that bad. You had Noah Puckerman right where every girl in this school wanted him and you tossed that away because of Finn freaking Hudson who was in love with Quinn freaking Fabray who was supposedly having his baby. You sang him songs twenty four seven and made them all very obvious that they were about him, not to mention how you were constantly on the look out for some sort of duet the two of you could perform together, because you sounded so incredible together. And then you brought that lovely Jesse St. Dick kid into all of our lives. That was so very enjoyable, in case you were wondering about how we felt about him." Santana replied.

"Don't forget about how this year she threw the duet competition on purpose because she and Finn were so amazing and could never lose. They're the power couple who we all thought would get together eventually, right?" Brittany asked sarcastically as she joined their little group.

"Okay, I told Finn both of those things in privacy. How the hell did you ever find out about them?" Rachel wondered, crossing her arms and hating the fact that everybody seemed to be gaining up on her about her stupid little crush on Finn Hudson the year before along with all of her pathetic little attempts to try and get him to notice and love her. She honestly hated herself for being so stupid, and wished she'd just hung onto Puck when she'd had the chance, because he'd never wanted her to change. He'd been fine with the real Rachel that not many people were allowed to meet, because she was so afraid they'd all hate her, because Finn didn't like that side of her.

"How do you think? The duet contest was pretty damn easy for figure out, but the other thing was overheard by Kurt who told me. He told everybody, really. The boy can't keep a secret." Brittany shrugged as she spoke. "But, Rachel, you were really bad. You did everything you could to impress him. YOu even gave RBI a pair of your-"She started to continue, but Santana cut her off.

"Let's not talk about that particular moment of stupidity on Rachel's part, alright? Let's just talk about how she threatened Olive Garden to give him a job and he never said thank you. And how he just left her when it came to pictures for the year book last year. Rachel, no matter what you did it was never enough. But with Puck? He kicked Jacob's ass trying to get those back for you and he flipped out on Finn after the picture. He even tried to get there in time to take the picture with you. Finn? He was a loser and he still is," Santana said.

"Okay! We get it. Can we please stop the Rachel-Berry-Is-An-Idiot shot?" Rachel whined and everybody laughed.


	7. Puckleberry

**She'll Never Be Me  
A Glee Fan Fiction  
Chapter 7  
_A/N: Anybody call for some Puckleberry?_**

Rachel was sitting in her room, her feet curls underneath her on her desk chair as she worked on her trig homework, biting the cap slightly as she focused on problem, dressed in a pair of black yoga leggings with a hot pink waistband with PINK written across her butt on silver studs with a black racer back tank top with her feet bare when her phone rang.

"Hello?" She asked into the phone, settling it between her shoulder and her ear as she flipped it open easily with her thumb, not bothering to check the ID. It was probably Santana to give her advice on what to wear the next day, or Brittany with some stupid question that would make Rachel laugh out loud. Perhaps it was Sam, trying to come up with a plan for the next day of their little plot.

"Rachel? I need you." A soft, deep voice. Rachel frowned as she took her phone away from her head and studied the tiny little screen where it told her who she was talking to and exactly how long the call had been going on. She had been right when she'd heard the voice on the other end of the line. It had been Puck calling her, and it wasn't for some sort of stupid reason. He needed her.

"Noah? What's the matter? What's going on?" She asked, pushing away from her desk and unfolding her legs, lifting herself from her chair and standing up, walking towards her make-up table to study her reflection in the mirror, pulling her hair into a low ponytail and checking her make-up for any smudges. She had a feeling she'd be leaving for the Puckerman residence soon, and she didn't want to have to worry about her appearance on the way.

"My mom had to work a double shift so she left me in charge of my little sister, Rebekkah, and I have to make dinner and I just realized that I suck at it and she's complaining about being hungry and the kitchen's a mess and there's smoke everywhere and, well, Rachel, I just don't know what to do, alright? Help me?" He begged. He sounded so panicked that Rachel couldn't help but laugh.

"Calm down, Noah. I'm on my way, okay? I'll be there soon. I'll pick up some pizza on the way to your place and then we can clean the kitchen, alright? I'm going to help you, alright? Now please just calm down and wait the forty five minutes it's going to take me-at the most-to get to your house with some food, okay?" She giggled as she slipped on a pair of flip-flips and started towards her house.

"Since when can you drive, Berry?" He asked, a teasing hint to his voice. It was clear he was slowly startling to relax. "And you have a car? How come I didn't know that? And how come other people are always giving you a ride places?" He asked her as she exited her house and slid into the front seat of her car, rolling her eyes as she started it up.

"I'm seventeen. I got my license last year and my fathers bought me a car for my birthday, alright? That's what happens with most teenagers in America nowadays, Noah. And the reason I always get a ride is because my driving abilities are somewhat debatable between my few friends. Meaning they hate letting me behind a wheel." She rolled her eyes.

"But...Rachel, I don't get it. If you have a car and you can drive-no matter how bad people think you are at the task-why the hell don't you drive yourself to and from school instead of having Satan and Britt cart you all over the place? And why the hell do you ask Sam freaking Evans for a ride places? Since when are you and him all buddy buddy?" He questioned.

Rachel couldn't help but smirk at that. Santana and Sam had been right. Puck was jealous and the plan was working. When Sam had told her how guys always wanted the girl more when they couldn't have her anymore because she'd found somebody new, he had been absolutely right. She grinned as she thought about her next response, deciding to tease him just a little bit.

"Sam and I are friends. Well, we were. We're dating, now actually, although I'm not so sure that's any of your business as this is the most civil you've ever been to me before. Now, if you're done questioning my reasons for always getting a ride places, it's going to take me longer if I have to go order your pizza when I get to the pizza place rather than call right now to place the order," Rachel said as she hung up and dialed the number for pizza.

* * *

Rachel walked into Puck's house with an antipasti balanced on top of two pizzas-one with goat cheese for herself and plain pizza for Puck and his sister. She entered the kitchen, grinning at her memory for having not forgotten the way to his house, his favorite pizzeria, where he always hid the spare key, or the layout of his house from when they were children and always doing something together, which usually involved getting into lots of trouble together. All because of her crazy pranks, although to this day, she'd still argue that all the blame belonged on a certain mohawked boy with the name of Noah Puckerman. And most people believed that it was all on him.

"You're a life saver," He grinned at her as she set the pizza onto the counter and then placed the salad besides it. She couldn't help but notice how the kitchen was one hundred percent spotless. Or how Becca was sitting there patiently with a slightly confused grin on her face as she watched her brother's happy reaction to Rachel coming. Rachel remembered that PUck had always been an excellent cook, actually, and she found herself smirking as she realized that this was just another one of his jealous antics, doing his best to make sure that she wasn't doing anything with Sam that night, and that all of her attention was focused where it was supposed to be. On himself.

"Hey there Becca," Rachel smiled at the female version of Puck. "Why don't you fix a plate and go in the living room while your brother and I sit in here and talk over our dinner? You can watch cartoons and I won't let Noah tell your mom," She said in a secretive whisper to the ten year old girl. Becca smiled happily as she jumped to her feet and hurried to get her plate together, rushing into the living room. Rachel shook her head as she heard the theme song to Spongebob start to play, signaling that Becca had, in fact, decided to take Rachel up on her generous offer. "What's up with you? You and I both know you're an amazing chef," Rachel said, rolling her eyes.

"She's a very stubborn girl. She wanted some sort of spaghetti thing that I couldn't make. You just took too long getting over here so I cleaned the kitchen so it didn't look like we were a bunch of slobs who didn't know how to clean up our own house without some help while we waited for you to show up," He said defensively, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned against the counter. Rachel gave him a look full of disbelief and he sighed, pushing from the counter and working on putting together his own plate, his back to her as he spoke. "Maybe I just wanted to see you. I miss hanging out with you, alright? We haven't really hung out alone in years, except for that short while we dated," He said simply.

"Noah, come on. You know who's fault it is that we never get to see one another. You started the slushy facials, remember? You tossed that blueberry one in my face on the first day of freshman year. I hate blueberry, by the way. And it was a pain in the ass to get out of my clothes that day. And my hair? I'd spent forever making it look that way and then you ruined it with that icy slush that drenched it and made it frizz and curl. And my plaid skirt was practically white! It was see through for most of my morning classes and all of the boys were laughing at me because they could see my underwear." Rachel reminded him as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"They were white. With little gold stars on them," Puck said slowly, as if he were just remember it now. "And you were wearing a little plaid skirt. It was a light grey with pale pink and white in it. It was really short, and this soft yet thick material...and you had it on with a tank top, fuzzy pink sweater that was extremely low cut. And knee socks. White knee socks with grey flats. And I remember thinking you looked so amazing...so incredible. And it made me mad, because I remembered how I'd asked you out over the summer and you'd told me no. And I'd picked up a slushy on the way to school, so I walked over to you and I tossed it on you. All because you said 'hi Noah' like everything was okay." Puck said.

"You...you threw a slushy at me because I rejected you and then said hello?" Rachel frowned. "But you could have had any girl in school. You did have every girl in school. What did it matter that I said no? And, do you remember why I said no? I said I didn't want to throw away your friendship because it meant so much to me, and I was afraid of what would happen if we didn't work out. Do you remember that?" She gave off a bitter laugh at this part before she went on. "It was a stupid mistake on my own part, though. If I'd said yes, I probably could have been popular all through high school. I mean, I lost your friendship either way, really," She shrugged, shaking her head.

"Hey, come on, let's not talk about sad memories anymore." Noah sigh, shaking his head. He didn't want to make her remember all of the reasons she had to hate him-and she had a lot of reasons to despite him. She was supposed to remember all the of the things she liked about him. The things that had been the reason he'd been her first kiss. Her first boyfriend. Pretty much her first everything, except for her first time. BUt nobody had that title yet, so he still had a chance. He'd invited her over tonight for the sole purpose of trying to get her back. "Let's just relax, eat, and share a few laughs. And then you can help me back because you know I suck at that and Becca always has something freshly baked before bed. It's a tradition," He made a face.

* * *

"NOAH!" Rachel shrieked as an egg cracked over her head and the yellow, runny liquid inside of it filled her hair and began to drip down her face. Unlike when Jesse and the other members of Vocal Adrenaline had tried this on her the year before, her feelings weren't hurt and she wasn't about to go crawl under a rock and cry herself to sleep over the pain. And it wasn't just because she knew Noah's family used only cage-free, organic eggs. It was because this wasn't done to be cruel. It was done in a teasing, friendly manner. "You're going to pay for that," She warned.

SHe grabbed the bag of flour from the counter and tore it open, reaching up as high as she could to dump it onto of his head. The end result was that they were both evenly covered in the white powder with broad grins and laughter ringing from the kitchen and reminding them of when they were young as Rachel grabbed the melted butter and smashed it onto Puck's face, grinning triumphantly as he smudged it against his own face while trying to get it out of his eyes so that he could see her.

"You're going down," He said, reaching out and grabbing her around the waist, lifting her up and swinging her onto his shoulder. He made his way from the kitchen and into the living room. "Becca? You're cookies will be done in five minutes. You can take them out. I need to deal with Rachel because she was picking on me." He whined as he continued to walk upstairs without pausing. He tossed her onto his bed when he reached his room and grabbed his AXE-knowing full well that she hated the smell of it-and spraying it all over her with a smirk.

"You suck," Rachel whined, taking in the smell as he tossed the empty can to the aside and jumped onto the bed besides her, wrapping her tightly in his arms, rolling over so that he was on top of her and smirking down at her pleasantly. "And you're heavy. Get your fat ass off of me," She whined, trying to free her arms to shove him off. But he was much too strong. And besides, she was kind of enjoying having him on top of her, despite her control complex where she felt the need to always be on top. Besides the fact that she was so much smaller.

"No, there's a correction to that statement. You are the one who sucks, because you're the female," He grinned down at her. "And don't call me fat either. I'm not fat, I'm muscle," He stuck his tongue out at her. "Although, I have to admit that you swearing is a major turn on. And it's very rare that I ever find a girl more attractive or more bad ass than I am. I mean, look at me-I invented bad ass as far as our high school goes. I set the record there, didn't I?" He smiled at her playfully, causing her to giggle a little bit.

"Yeah, I know you're turned on. I can feel it," She rolled her eyes.

"Big right?" He asked.

"You're disgusting!"

"No, just horny."

"You have a girlfriend," Rachel said.

"Lauren?"

"Duh."

"We aren't dating. We just hang out."

"But you like her."

"She's cool. BUt she's too much woman for me."

"That's so rude! Just because she's-"

"I don't mean because of her weight, Berry."

"Then how do you mean it?"

"Don't worry about it. Besides, I'm into somebody else."

"Who?"

"It doesn't have anything to do with you. And it doesn't matter anyways, because she's into somebody else. BUt I don't want to talk about Lauren or any other girl right now."

"Then what do you want to talk about?" She wondered curiously as he finally rolled off of her and propped himself up onto his side so he could face her with a playful grin on his face.

"Well, you know that sex is always number one on my priority list, but since you're seeing Sam right now and my little sister is downstairs, I don't think that one is such a good idea at the moment," He sighed.

"You have a one tracked mind and I can't help but find it rather disturbing. I mean, you were just saying that you're into somebody else and now you want to have sex with me? You're horrid," She rolled her eyes.

"I'm just a man with needs and not afraid to admit it. I know what I want and I know what I need. So what if I like to try and get them fulfilled as often as I possible can? It just makes me more bad ass, if you ask me."

"I think it makes you a womanizer," Rachel informed him. "And I think that I should be going now as well. I came here to help you feed your little sister and I've done just that. I've stayed too long."

"What? Are you meeting Sam for sex or something?" He asked, his playful mood turning into a harsh, cruel and cold sounding tone of voice as he spoke to her now. "Whatever. Have fun with Trouty Mouth." He rolled his eyes as he sat up.

"I'm not going to meet Samuel right now," Rachel defended herself. "I just have to go. It's getting late and it's not appropriate for me to be here any later than I've already stayed," She explained.

"You used to stay until midnight. You used to cry when you had to leave and beg to stay longer. You used to just sleep here and then borrow something to wear in the morning and make it work." He said harshly as she started towards the door.

"I'm not a little girl anymore, Noah. You and I are not eight years old anymore. We're teenagers and it's no longer appropriate for me to sleep over at your house and wear your clothes. I can't stay until morning anymore. I'm not a little girl," She repeated.

"Trust me, Rachel," He whispered as she stormed out of the room and down the stairs. "I know that you're not a little girl anymore. Believe me on that one. I've noticed that you've grown up," He sighed, remembering how good it had felt to hold her just a few moments ago.


	8. Performances

**She'll Never Be Me  
A Glee Fan Fiction  
Chapter 8**

Noah Puckerman clenched his fists as he entered the choir room and found Rachel Berry-_his _Rachel-curled up comfortably in Sam Evan's arms as they sat in chairs pushed so close together, she was practically on his lap. He'd thought that after their night together last Friday-about three days ago-Rachel would call things off with Sam. But apparently when she'd left his house in her angry rage over their mini-fight on Friday, she'd really been mad at him. Mad enough to spend her weekend getting even cozier with a particular blonde haired boy who seemed to have a goal in life that solely revolved around stealing everything that had meaning from Puck's life and claiming it as his own.

"Mr. Shuester?" He said. "I'm ready for my assignment." This break-up full of regret assignment that Mr. Shuester had assigned for them was probably their longest assignment yet, lasting an entire week, and going into the next week as well, being as only Rachel and Artie had presented their song choices. And Sam as well, if Rachel's duet with him to that stupid Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood song counted. Either way, this was turning into the longest assignment in all of the New Directions history as a glee club.

"Alright, then," Mr. Shuester said happily. "I'm glad to see that somebody besides Rachel is taking the initiative in this assignment! Go right ahead Puck," He nodded as he made his way from the center of the room and took his seat off to the side as Puck stood up. The mohawked boy grabbed his guitar roughly and started towards the center of the room, beginning to strum.

"This is a song for a girl that meant a lot to me and I lost all because of a stupid mistake. And now all I want is to get her back, but I guess it's just a little too late," He explained, shocking everybody with his honesty.

"Wait," Artie Abrams called out, pausing Puck to stop his strumming.

"No questions," Puck growled at the wheel chaired boy.

"But...come on, man, I'm your best friend and I don't even have the slightest idea who this girl is. You've got to give us something more than that, because that's been the deepest you've ever been." Mike said.

"And then everybody in here wonders why I don't sing solos? Damn, you all know that I hate feelings and hate them even more when they're about a girl and relationships and shit like that, so can we just freaking drop it already? Now, if you're all done rudely interrupting me, I'd like to sing my freaking solo right now!" He said, reminding them all of a particular short little diva.

"Alright, we're done. Sing," Santana rolled her eyes, holding her hands up in the sign of surrender as she turned around briefly and shared a secretive smirk with Rachel and Sam before the blonde haired boy with the large mouth and the sparkly eyed girl with the large nose went back to their act of being one hundred percent and totally in love, causing Puck to growl a little bit, snarling as he went back to strumming his guitar, fumbling with the pic just a little bit, allowing Rachel to get one more smirk in before the song began.

_"Hey, did you happen to see the most beautiful girl in the world/And if you did, was she crying, crying/Hey, if you happen to see the most beautiful girl that walked out on me/Tell her I'm sorry, tell her I need my baby/Oh, won't you tell her that I love her/I woke up this morning/Realized what I had done/I stood alone in the cold gray dawn/I knew I'd lost my morning sun/I lost my head and I said some things/Now comes the heartaches that the morning brings/I know I'm wrong and I couldn't see/I let me words slip away from me/So hey, did you happen to see the most beautiful girl in the world/And if you did, was she crying, crying," _Puck sang, sitting on a stool in the front of the room with his eyes locked on his guitar.

_"Hey, if you happen to see the most beautiful girl that walked out on me/Tell her I'm sorry, tell her I need my baby/Oh, won't you tell her that I love her/Hey, if you happen to see the most beautiful girl that walked out on me/Tell her I'm sorry, tell her I need my baby/Oh, won't you tell her that I love her," _He sang on, lifting his head up for the final verse and scanning the sea of Gleeks before locking his eyes on Rachel, who was watching him intently from the corner of her eyes, her head resting on Sam's shoulder with his arm around her, before Puck lowered his gaze back to the guitar, finishing the song with the few final chords before he looked up at his fellow glee club members and stood up, walking back to his seat.

"Mr. Shue?" Santana's hand flew into the air quickly. He nodded towards her, signaling for her to continue. "Do our songs have to be sung towards a person that we shared a failed relationship with and regret said relationship," She mentally cursed Rachel for making her take all those pre-SAT classes over the weekend. "Or could we sing the song to a friend, trying to get them to realize their mistake in the relationship and that the person they really want to be with, still wants them back?" She asked the teacher.

"The song just needs to fit the assignment in being a regretful break-up song, Santana," Mr. Shuester sighed, running a hand through his curly hair as he wondered how he ended up with a room full of Rachel-Berry's when it came to their speeches and their actions regarding solos. "Is this question a line-up for your assignment or just a general question?" He asked her.

"Oh, no, it was just a question. But now that I have my answer, I can get up and do my song." She said brightly as she got to her feet and made her way towards the front of the room.

"Lovely," Mr. Shuester muttered under his breath, already tired of this day.

"And my song's a shout-out to Rachel-listen to my advice, girl," She winked at her best friend.

"Oh, oh-Santana, you said I got to help with your song, remember? When we were coming up with our little plan and-"Brittany began, but was cut off by Santana's eye roll and affirmation that, yes, BRittany could come and sing with her.

The two cheerleaders took their place in the center of the room, whispering their song choice to Brad and the rest of the band. The rest of the club was silent as they waited for the introduction to play. Rachel sat up in her chair, no longer resting in Sam's arms, but his arm was draped over the back of her chair. Puck leaned forward, watching the girls intently, wondering what was happening.

_"Going back to the corner where I first saw you/Gonna camp in my sleeping back, I'm not gonna move/Got some words on some cardboard, got your picture in my hand/Saying if you see this girl, can you tell her where I am/Some try to hand me money, they don't understand/I'm not broke, I'm just a brokenhearted man/I know it makes no sense, but what else can I do/How can I move on, when I've been in love with you," _Santana started off the song on her own, her soft, seductive voice making it clear that each 'I' and every 'me' was supposed to be a 'him' or a 'he'

_"Cause if one day you wake up and find that you're missing me/And your heart starts to wonder where on this earth I could be/Thinking maybe you'll come back here to the place that we'd meet/And you'd see me waiting for you on the corner of the street/So I'm not moving/I'm not moving/Police man says, son you can't stand here/I said there's someone I'm waiting for if it's a day, a month, a year/Gotta stand my ground even if it rains or snows/If she changes her mind, this is the first place she will go/'Cause if one day you wake up and find that you're missing me/And your heart starts to wonder where on this earth I could be," _Brittany took over for the chorus and next verse, as well as half of the chorus the second time around.

_"Thinking maybe you'll come back here to the place that we'd meet/And you see me waiting for you on the corner of the street/So I'm not moving/I'm not moving, I'm not moving, I'm not moving/People talk about the guy/Who's waiting on a girl/There are no holes in his shoes/But a big hole in his heart/Maybe I'll get famous as the man who can't be moved/And maybe you won't mean to but you'll see me on the news /And you'll come running to the corner/'Cause you'll know it's just for you/I'm the man who can't be moved/I'm the man who can't be moved," _Santana joined in her own voice with Brittany's as they finished the chorus and then went on with the next part of the song.

_"'Cause if one day you wake up and find that you're missing me/And your heart starts to wonder where on this earth I could be/Thinking maybe you'll come back here to the place that we meet/You see me waiting for you on the corner of the street/So I'm not moving ('Cause if one day you wake up and find that you're missing me)/I'm not moving (And your heart starts to wonder where on this earth I could be)/I'm not moving (Thinking maybe you'll come back here to the place that we'd meet)/I'm not moving(Oh you see me waiting for you on a corner of the street)," _Santana sang with Brittay's voice coming in.

_"Going back to the corner where I first saw you/Gonna camp out in my sleeping back, I'm not gonna move," _The two girls finished the song out together, Brittany eyeing Puck, her eyes going from Puck to Rachel, while Santana focused on Rachel, a smirk on her face with one eyebrow raised up as if advising her to take the hint already and do something.

"Well?" Santana asked, crossing her arms and turning her gaze from Rachel and onto the rest of the group. "What did you guys think?" She asked with an expectant look in her eyes, knowing she was great.

As if on cue, the entire room burst into applause.


	9. Puck Finds Out

**She'll Never Be Me  
A Glee Fan Fiction  
Chapter 9**

"We need to talk," Puck declared, crossing his arms over his chest, appearing besides Rachel at her locker.

"I'm busy. I need to go and meet Sam. I only had to stop by my locker to grab my books," She said coldly, holding her science text book close to her chest as she pushed her locker shut. Puck noticed that her book bag was nowhere in sight and mentally swore at the fact that Sam must have taken it to his car already.

"I don't care. I really couldn't care less that your precious little Sam Evans is waiting for you, alright? We need to freaking talk and we need to talk right now. So stop worrying about making him mad or keeping him waiting and shut the hell up and listen to me so we can get this over with and you can finally stop playing whatever stupid game you've been playing with Sam this whole time," He said, crossing her arms over his chest with a snarl taking over his mouth.

"I think you're being a little rude, Noah. Sam is my boyfriend and he's taken my bag out to his car and is now waiting for me because I had to grab my books because stupidly forgot about them. Now, if you would like to talk to me, please politely ask me if I have a moment and wait for my response, which is no, I do not have any free time at present, so you're going to have to wait. Sam has to go and pick up his little brother and sister and I don't want to make him keep them waiting very long. It's not nice and they might get nervous and scared. Think of how Becca would feel if you were running late to get her," Rachel sighed.

**"**I don't give two shits what you have to do right now. You and I need to talk and god dammit, Rachel, you're going to talk to me!" He said, punching her locker. "I don't care if I need to follow you and Sam wherever the fuck you guys go because I need to talk to you and if I have to watch the two of you suck face any longer then I'm going to grab him by the stupid highlights and yank him away from you and kick his sorry ass, because every damn guy in this god forsaken school knows that you're my girl and they don't have a problem hiding their freaking lust for you so why the hell should he have to be any different? God dammit, Rachel, you're turning me into a freaking pussy and I won't stand for it any longer so shut the hell up about Sam and talk to me!" He snapped.

"Why, Noah Puckerman..."Rachel said slowly, grinning as she loosened her grip on her book, holding it against her hip was one hand, the spine pressed against her waist as she held it flat, a piece of hair wrapped around a single finger with her head tilted and a sly smile on her face. "I wouldn't talk like that if I were you. I mean, people might get the wrong idea. After all, I'm starting to think that...but no, it couldn't be possible. I mean...well, Noah Puckerman, you wouldn't happen to be _jealous _of my relationship with Samuel Evans now would you?" She wondered innocently as she tilted her head back so that she was staring at him straight on, still twirling her hair around her finger as she studied him with an intense look on her face.

"Jealous? Me? What? Psh...no," He said, making a face as he shook his head to deny it. "But...what if I were? Jealous, I mean. Let's just say that I did happen to be jealous of you and Sam Evans. Would that change anything?" He asked, his expression changing a little bit as he raised his eyebrows, a curious smile filling his face as he spoke. He crossed his arms and leaned against a locker, staring at her. She shrugged, turning towards him in her tiny little black skirt-the infamous one from sophomore year when they'd dated-and a soft, white, v-neck tight fitting tee shirt with black high heeled boots.

"Well," She said, taking a step towards him. "I suppose, that if you were to tell me that my little love affair with Samual caused you some sort of distress than, maybe, perhaps, I could tell you what my reasoning for dating the boy would be, and perhaps _that _information would change what was going on right now?" She said as mysteriously as she could, walking until she was right in front of him, the opposite side of her book hitting him in the waist to separate them.

"Well, it doesn't really matter what would happen if I was jealous, because I don't get jealous. Studs like me don't get jealous of girls they had a thing with moving on. That shit ain't bad ass, you get it?" He shook his head, going back to his cruel exterior that crushed her.

"Then what on earth did you want to talk about, if you weren't jealous?" She snapped.

She brought her book back into an upright position against her chest and took a step back.

"I don't like what's happening to you, in order for your precious little _Samuel," _he said the name as mockingly as he possibly could. "to love you and all that shit. I don't like how you're dressing and acting. It's not the Rachel we all put up with," He said with a hard glare.

"I really don't think that my actions with my friends or my boyfriend are any of your business. Nor is it any concern of yours how I am dressing or who I'm talking to. So, unless you're planning on running off and telling my fathers-who already know of what I am doing with my life at the current moment, by the way-I really don't think anything that I'm doing with or in my life involves you or any concern of yours," She rolled her eyes.

"You know what? You're right. I shouldn't concern myself with any of the shit you do, because I don't give two shits about you. You go on and wear whatever the hell you want to wear. You go ahead and do whatever the hell you want with Sam. You can have god damn sex with him in the hallways and screw each other's brains out between classes if that makes you happy. And then when you get into trouble when blondie's done with you and all the other guys think that you're some sort of slut, don't expect me to come around and help you out. Because I'm done with you," He said.

And then, he turned around, slammed his fist into a locker once again, and stormed off, stomping down the hallway and out of the school. Rachel sighed as she stood there, watching him fade away before she whispered his name into the empty hallway and slowly began to walk from the hallway, towards Sam's car, a sad smile on her face. She should have known better than to try and mess with Puck, in all fairness, and play around with him when he was doing the deepest thing anybody had ever seen him do before, but it had just been so easy. Now she was even worse off than she'd started when she and Sam had begun this stupid game. She sighed as she opened the door to Sam's car and climbed inside, shaking her head to signal that she wasn't in the mood to talk about it.

* * *

"I mess it all up. It's not going to work."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I messed everything up. The plan's over."

"What the hell are you on about now? The plan's going great."

As soon as Sam had dropped Rachel off at home, she'd called Santana to tell her all about the disaster that had happened between her and Puck that afternoon in the hallway. Now, Rachel was sitting in her room, eating a pint of Death By Chocolate Ben&Jerry's ice cream, forgetting her Vegan vows for the moment and deeply disgusted with herself for her actions, as she ranted to Santana about all the hard work that was now going right down the drain, because of her stupid mistake and Puck's angry words because of it.

"Puck confronted me in the halls."

"So? I don't know where you've been living, but that's a good thing."

"No, you don't get it. I was teasing him and trying to flirt and-"

"Oh you freaking idiot! You don't tease Puck!"

"He's like a dog. He bites," Brittany said, her voice telling Rachel she was on speaker phone.

"I know, but I was so excited it was working that I didn't think about it. " Rachel whined.

"Calm down, bitch," Santana said. "This can all be fixed."

"How?"

"Don't worry. Just leave it all to me, alright?"

"What are you going to do?"

"If I could get Finn Hudson to sleep with me, I can do this."

"But he's a-"

"If I could get Finn and Quinn to both get mono to break up Quinn and Sam, I can do this."

"You mean they-"

"Oh, they were cheating. I just outed them."

"Okay. Fine. I trust you."

"I don't want your trust. Don't deserve it."

"But you-"

"I'm sending Britt over to handle you."

"But-"

_*Click*_

* * *

"Stop being a dick to Berry," Santana said as she burst through the doors of the Puckerman household and into the kitchen where she knew Puck would be, since his mother's car wasn't there. "I get that she was a bitch and all but she was just screwing with your head. Now stop acting like your balls are so big you need to flash them around so everybody knows that you're the bad ass in charge of the god forsaken school and go freaking apologize to her because right now the bitch is freaking crying her damn eyes out at her house with Brittany because she thinks you don't give two shits about. So grow a pair of balls bigger than a freaking acorn and go freaking-"She stopped when she saw the wide, innocent hazel eyes of Rebekkah Puckerman.

"What the hell, Satan? First of all my freaking little sister is sitting here right now and she's got freaking virgin ears! I don't need you filling her god damn brain with all those profanities you use twenty four seven!" He snapped at her, obviously not caring about his own language with his sister around. "And second of all, it's not cool at all to come breaking into my house-which is a crime by the way-and yell at me for how I treated Berry just because she was acting like a slut and got mad that I was being a caring gentleman and trying to look out for her!" He yelled, pushing his sister out of the room.

"Now I know you did not just call my best friend a slut because that's just not cool. The girls that you sleep with? Those girls are sluts. Rachel? She's not a slut. She's a good girl and she's just trying to grab the attention of the jackass who doesn't deserve her!" Santana shouted, crossing her arms across her chest. "And what happened to never swearing at girls? From what I hear, you've been doing that an awful lot today," Santana rolled her eyes.

"I know that Sam doesn't deserve her! Why do you think I'm trying to stop her from changing who she is? Sam's not supposed to be with her and if she'd stop looking for the popular guy for two minutes she'd realize that she belongs with me!" Puck said.

"Sam? Are you freaking stupid or something? Even Brittany knows she doesn't like Sam!" Santana made a face.

"Then why the hell is so always sucking face with him if she's not into him?" Puck asked.

"Oh, I don't know. It's not like she's sung two god damn break-up songs all about wanting an ex boyfriend back. And it's not like one of them was about how the new girl he's with doesn't deserve him. She's not being obvious or anything," Santana rolled her eyes.

"She wants Finn back? Well that's even god damn worse! He's with fucking Quinn Fabray and I bet ten bucks they're screwing each other too. What? Is that why she picked Sam to mess with? Because he wants Quinn back anyways? God dammit, Santana, why the hell does she always have to go for the assholes who don't deserve her and don't give two shits abut her?" He asked, no longer angry, but sad instead.

"She's not into Finn anymore, Puck. SHe's not into Sam and she doesn't want Finn back. And yes, she and Sam are using each other and a part of it is because Sam wants to get back at Finn and QUinn and because he wants Quinn back, but Finn and Quinn play no part in Rachel's reasoning for changing her appearance or anything. She came to me asking for a make-over because she wanted to impress somebody and I told her hell no, because I knew he wouldn't be into her if she changed. But she insisted on it, and I figured it could at least make him realize how he felt," Santana sighed.

"Who is she trying to get with?" Puck asked softly, lowering himself onto a kitchen chair. "I'm not going to be mad, just please, tell me who she's trying to make jealous. Because I don't want it to come as a surprise to me when she starts dating this mystery guy. I won't be able to stand it. I almost kicked Finn's ass when he told me he and Rachel were officially dating and so madly in love. And every time I see her with Sam I want to go and tackle him to the ground, punching his pretty boy face in until it's not so pretty anymore. And when Finn hurt Rachel like he did? I wanted to slam him into a locker and choke him to death. If this new guy hurts her, I'll kill him. I can't watch her get hurt anymore," Puck whispered.

"Well, if you're going to hurt this new guy for hurting her, you better get started, because he's already hurt her. He's hurt her countless times in her life. He hurt her sophomore year when they broke up, because he was into somebody else. He hurt her when she found out who the real father of Quinn's baby was. He hurt her when he didn't say anything after her stupid music video last year. He hurt her when he didn't want anything to do with her when she was upset about Finn. He hurt her when he never called her after she and Finn broke up. He hurt her when he got a new girlfriend and sang her a love song. And he just hurt her today, when he called her a slut. So what are your feelings on suicide, exactly?" Santana asked.

"She...she's using Sam to make me jealous? She likes me?" Puck asked, his head raising slightly as he looked at her with a shocked expression on his face. He slowly, very slowly, began to smile. "She actually wants to be with me? NO jokes and no ulterior motive? She wants to be with _me?_" He wondered, his eyes growing wide in amazement but his smile growing with each and every word as he spoke. Santana couldn't help but grin a little bit at his happiness. It was clear that he was just as into her as she was into him.

"Puck, she doesn't just like you. She's in love with you and all she wants is to know that you like her back. She wants to be with you. She can't wait for you to wrap her in your arms and kiss her and tell her she's beautiful. Seriously, she tells me this stuff and I listen. Do you know how much I must care about the freaking little freak to listen to her and care the way I am?" Santana rolled her eyes.

"She likes me. Rachel Berry likes me. THe Lima loser...wow...I need a plan. I need something romantic. Something sweet. SOmething incredible to win her over," He said, nodding. "And you need to leave because I have to surprise her." He said, grabbing her arm and literally throwing her out of his house.

"That was rude!" SHe snapped as she stormed over to her car.


	10. Quinn Quits

**She'll Never Be Me  
A Glee Fan Fiction  
Chapter 10**

"Mr. Shuester!" Finn announced during Glee the next day. "I've got a song I'm ready to present for my assignment," He said as he stood up and walked towards the front of the room.

"Finn, you really don't need to do the assignment. We all know that you regret breaking up with me, but we're dating again now, so it's okay," Quinn said.

"Oh, will you get over yourself, princess?" Santana rolled her eyes. "And take, like, two seconds to realize that you were a bitch and deserved to be dumped last? Because you cheated, just like you did again this year. Same song, different dance. Or vice versa. Whatever the freaking saying is. But that doesn't matter, because Finn broke up with Rachel because of a mistake he made himself which led to her making a mistake. So I have a strong feeling that he's about to sing a song for her and not your pretty little blonde ass," Santana said.

"Santana's right," Brittany spoke up. "You cheated on FInn with Puck and then lied about the baby which isn't very nice, Quinn. I mean, the baby would have been very confused because Puck was her real daddy but you wanted her to believe that Finn was. Who was she supposed to call daddy? And then you tried to deny it when Finn found out. It's really no wonder that he dumped you. But Rachel? He made his own mistake by lying about sleeping with Santana-which really confused me, because why would anybody lie about sleeping with Santana? The whole school pretty much has anyways. But, anyways, it was his fault that Rachel and him broke up, so I bet this song is about Finchel, right Finn?" Brittany asked cheerfully.

"Yeah, Britt, you've got it right." Finn smiled at her, shaking his head at the blonde cheerleader who nobody ever really took the time to understand. Then he faced the front of the room as the music began and his eyes locked on Rachel with a bright smile on his face, while Brittany flashed him a secretive grin, despite the fact that he wasn't looking at her, causing Santana to frown in confusion.

_"Honey why you calling me so late/It's kinda hard to talk right now/Honey why ya crying, is everything okay/I gotta whisper 'cause I can't be too loud,"_ Finn sang out the first verse of the Hinder song.

"_Well_,_ my girl's in the next room/Sometimes I wish she was/I guess we never really moved on/It's really good to hear your voice saying my name/It sounds so sweet/ coming from the lips of an angel/Hearing those words it makes me weak/And I never wanna say goodbye/But girl you make it hard to be faithful/With the lips of an angel,"_ He went on singing the song, slowly making his way towards Rachel, only to turn around and walk away right as he reached her.

_"It's funny that you're calling me tonight/And, yes, I've dreamt of you too/And does he know you're talking to me/Will it start a fight/No, I don't think she has a clue, __Well my girl's in the next room/Sometimes I wish she was you/I guess we never really moved on/It's really good to hear your voice saying my name/It sounds so sweet/Coming from the lips of an angel/Hearing those words it makes me weak/And I never wanna say goodbye, but girl you make it hard to be faithful with those lips of an angel," _Finn sang, grabbing a stool and lowering himself onto it so that he was sitting down.

_"It's really good to hear your voice, say my name-it sounds so sweet/__Coming from the lips of an angel/hearing those words it makes me weak/And I never wanna say goodbye/But girl you make it hard to be faithful/With the lips of an angel/And I ever wanna say goodbye/But girl you make it hard to be faithful/With the lips of an angel," _Finn sang with his eyes locked directly on Rachel, causing him to receive a very angry glare from Quinn Fabray, his girlfriend who couldn't help but wonder how much of this song was true, and angry, jealous glares from Sam Evans-who was acting, of course, because his feelings weren't real-and from Noah Puckerman-whose glares were one hundred percent real, just like his feelings. _"Honey why you calling me, so late?" _Finn finished the song.

During the entire performance, Rachel had been having a flashback of the previous night though, causing her to tune everything around her out.

* * *

_"Finn?" Rachel asked as she heard the other line click and breathing from the other side. _

_"Rach?" He whispered. "Why are you calling me right now? I mean, I don't mind it...it's just...Rach, you know it's ten thirty, right? At night. It's really late, and it's a little hard for me to talk right now," He explained. _

_"It's just...Oh, Finn I made a terrible mistake and everything's just blowing up in my face right now and I don't know what to do. Brittany's no help because she's only confusing me and Santana just keeps yelling at me for being so upset and swearing in spanish and I never even **took **Spanish! And...and..."She said, but she couldn't get any more out without the tears falling down her face. _

_"Rach? Shit, Rach, are you **crying? **Why are you crying? What's the matter? Is everything okay?" He asked. It was such a stupid question, because everything clearly wasn't okay, but Rachel knew he was asking because he was the absolute worst when it came to dealing with crying, hysterical girls. Besides, it gave her a reason to laugh, and it actually felt really good to laugh for a genuine reason with somebody who didn't know about how stupid she'd been during the past few weeks. "Listen, I'm sorry for whispering, but I can't be too loud, okay?" He went on. _

_"It's fine. I don't mind you whispering." Rachel said. And it was pure honesty when she spoke. She wasn't actually calling him because she thought he could help her where nobody else could. She didn't want to tell him everything that was going on in her life. She wasn't planning on revealing her plan of using Sam to make Puck jealous and helping Sam in the effort to try and break up Finn and Quinn so that Sam could get his girl back. That would be crazy and purely unnecessary. She just wanted to talk to somebody, and the fact that Finn didn't have the slightest idea of what had been happening in her life lately made him seem like the perfect option for her. And, besides that, he'd actually answered the phone. _

_"Quinn's in the next room...I'm in the kitchen right now. She wants a snack. And she's in the living room. You know, sometimes I wish she was you. It was so easy to hang out with you and you didn't have me constantly pausing the movie to go get you snacks. Of course, I was never really interested in the movies you picked out to watch so none of that mattered to me anyways. But, hey, I guess sometimes people just don't really move on, you know? But, it's really good to hear your voice. Especially when you say my name. It sounds so sweet...you have lips like an angel, and your voice? It's like an angel's voice too. Whenever you talk, it makes me weak. But, whatever. You didn't call to hear about that," He sighed. _

_"Finn...I really don't mind you talking. In fact, it's really helping me here. I like it when you're talking. At least it's taking my mind off what's wrong and I really don't want to talk about my problems tonight. I've already had to tell Sam, who just sort of stared at me and then tried to make me laugh-our senses of humor really don't line up, in case you were wondering-and then I had to tell Santana, who, as I said, screamed at me in Spanish, and then I told Brittany who started rambling on about cupid and fate and the stars and stuff like that that really confused me," Rachel explained. _

_"I never want to hang up this phone. I wish I could just pause this moment and live in it forever. I miss you, Rachel. I miss you so much. I really do like Quinn, but I still love you. I always will. And you really make it hard to be faithful, especially when I have to hear you talk or sing. Your like an angel and how can I reject or say no to an angel? " He chuckled a little at the end, trying to keep things light and failing at it. _

_"Finn..."She sighed, twirling the cord of the phone around around her finger. She wasn't sure why she hadn't used her cell phone to call him, but she hadn't. She'd used the old-fashioned phone besides her bed. Sometimes it felt good to have the cord to play with when she was nervous. _

_"Yeah?" He asked her, sounding anxious, as if he couldn't wait for her to reply. _

_"Do you mind that I'm calling you right now? SInce you're on a-"_

_"It's funny that you're calling me right now, actually. I mean, tonight and everything. I kind of had a dream about you last night...but..hey, Rach? Does Sam know that you're talking to me right now? I don't want to start a fight."_

_"You know that I could probably have a very good argument if I were to ask you the same question about your own girlfriend right now, right?" She asked him, rolling her eyes at how he'd managed to dodge that question. He'd always been good at avoiding things that he didn't really want to talk about. Not that she could blame him. She sort of envied that quality in him. _

_"Well, I don't think that Quinn has a clue. Which is good. I mean, you heard what I just told you right? I know what song I'm singing at glee tomorrow. It's probably going to cause a break-up between Quinn and I. A huge fight between us, because you know how she is when it comes to dramatics. I want you back, Rach, and I'm not giving up. You know how stubborn I can be when I want you. I didn't give up when you were with Jesse and he was this talented older guy who was all mysterious. I think I can compete with Sam," He laughed a little._

_"Finn..."She sighed, trailing off. "Listen, I didn't want to have to tell you any of this, because I know how it sounds and all that, but hearing what you just said, I really think that I should tell. Sam and I? Well, our relationship isn't exactly real. We don't love one another and we're not really dating. It's just pretend to try and get the attention of the people we really want to be with. And...you know what? You could actually help me with that. If you don't mind. Sam wants Quinn back, but he doesn't want her to cheat and he really doesn't want to be the reason you two break-up. Be honest with her. Or let her break-up with you for singing the song. Please, Finn, don't be selfish and-"_

_"Rachel? I...I don't really want you back and I'm not just saying that because you like somebody else. I couldn't care less that you and Sam are using one another and I really am kind of grateful that Sam's there and willing to take Quinn off of my hands, because I don't think I could be with the girl I really want to be with her still around. And I guess I was just using the fact that I'll always love you as an excuse to get rid of her. I...you're going to laugh and think that this is totally ridiculous, because she's into Artie and shit, but, well, I'm kinda into Brittany." He stumbled through his speech. And while Rachel knew that most people would think he was lying to cover his embarrassment, Rachel knew he was being honest. _

_"Well, how about this. You help me get Sam and Quinn together and I'll work my magic on getting Brittany as your girlfriend? Because, in case you haven't noticed, she and Artie are constantly on the rocks in their relationship, and, besides that, she always listens to her friends. And I happen to be a very close friend with her now. So, what do you say? You do a favor for me and I'll do a favor for you? Because I have it on good authority that she and and Artie broke up this morning because he called her stupid..."Rachel said._

_"Seriously? She's single? And you'd do that for me? Oh my god, Rach you are the absolute best ex-girlfriend in the entire world. Yeah, I'll help get Sam and Quinn together. I guarantee that after I sing my song in glee tomorrow, Quinn's going to dump my sorry ass and then you can have Sam swoop in and work his wonderful magic on making her feel wonderful and stuff."_

_"Perfect. I'll talk to Britt in a second. She went downstairs to get herself some more ice cream but I think I hear her coming up now. Thanks for the help, Finn." She said as she hung up the phone._

_"What's going on?" Brittany asked as she entered the room. And that was when Rachel explained the entire plan. _

* * *

"What the hell did I say about singing songs to and with Rachel?" Quinn snapped, jumping to her feet.

"I was just doing what the ass-"

"Shut the hell up when I'm talking to you!"

"What's the matter with you?" Santana screamed, jumping to her feet as well.

"My problem is that Manhands is constantly trying to steal my boys!" Quinn said.

"Your boys? I don't see you name on any of them," Rachel muttered under her breath, causing Sam to laugh.

"We're done, Finn Hudson!" Quinn snapped.

"Fine with me," Finn said.

"Does that mean we can go out now?" Brittany asked innocently.

"What the hell is wrong with the girls in this club?" Quinn asked.

"What the hell are you getting at?" Santana growled.

"First Rachel dates Puck who was having _my _baby," Quinn said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Slut," Mercedes Jones coughed into her hand.

"And then she goes after Finn, causing our break-up," Quinn went on.

"Because you cheated on him with Puck!" Tina Cohen-Chang said in outrage.

"And then when Sam and I break-up, she steals him from me," Quinn said.

"Okay, that's enough," Sam said, standing up.

"Are you going to-"

"You know, I wanted you back. That's how my relationship with Rachel started out and she knew that. But in the past week I realized that you're nothing more than a lying, conniving bitch who always cheats on her boyfriends. You have a problem," Sam said.

"I think that's getting a little bit too harsh, Sam," Rachel spoke up, looking up at the blonde haired boy with a smile that couldn't be hidden. After all, he was actually defending her.

"No, it's actually not harsh enough," Sam shook his head. "I don't want you back anymore Quinn. I've moved on and I'm over you. I'm into somebody else and now I have to try and win her over, because I ruined my chance, trying to get you back!" Sam snapped.

"Can we go back to the problem with all of the glee club girls? Because last time I checked, Rachel was the only one who made it a habit of dating your exes-no offense, Ray," Santana said, raising her hand in the air.

"Mercedes dated Puck! Does anybody else remember his little Sinatra impersonation when he sang _The Lady Is A Tramp? _Because I sure as hell do. And he was still _pregnant with my baby!" _Quinn shrieked.

"And? I'm still only getting two girls going after the men that are apparently yours, and each time they've pretty much been the one to make the first move. I mean, Puck bought me the slushy, after all and-"Rachel was cut off by Quinn's screams.

"Santana was sexting Puck when we went and babysat Mr. Shuester's psycho ex-wife's crazy sister's kids! They freaking tied us to chairs and he spent the entire time sending dirty text messages to Santana!" Quinn stomped her foot.

"And? Are you going to bring up how I had sex with Finn, because personally, I'm getting tired of everybody constantly bringing up that mistake when all I want to do is forget about it," Santana smirked as she crossed her arms.

"Well now Brittany's trying to make a move for Finn, and that shit isn't cool," Quinn said, swearing which was something that she rarely ever did. "You're all just jealous of be because I'm the most attractive girl-"

"Okay, now you went a little bit too far," Puck said, standing up. "Don't you dare finish that sentence because it's absolutely wrong. First of all, none of you could take the claim as the most attractive girl in here. Matt and I made a list before you left and you know what? Santana was by far the hottest, which I'm sure none of you have ever doubted since meeting her," Puck said, chuckling to himself as Santana made a little curtsey.

"Brittany is the one we all think has the best personality-mostly because she's totally hilarious and can make anybody open up and crack up. I mean, she got freaking Mike Chang to stop being a computer programmed clone of his father and she even got Matt to start cracking jokes and smile every now and then. Brittany is the queen of personalities," Puck went on.

"As for the girl with the best rack? Well, I'm probably going to get slapped for this one, but it's Tina-Mike, please don't punch me. I had somebody else I wanted to put on that list, but Matt insisted that I put on Tina so if you want to kick somebody's ass, please go and track down Rutherford and bury his ass in the ground instead of mine," Puck said, flashing his best friend a smile.

"Mercedes, you were the girl that we didn't put in any category because we were all secretly just a little bit too afraid of getting our asses kicked if you found out. Which I'm very glad we were smart enough to do, because now I have to tell you all because of Quinn's stupidity. But we did recommend you for one and it was as the most beautiful," He said, giving her a grin.

"Which would have been given to another girl, but Matt would only let me allow her to win in one category so she ended up getting best legs. But then we needed a winner for best ass so she got that one too. We tried to figure out who the most attractive girl was, and we couldn't figure anyone out because somebody different won in every category," Puck said.

"Except for one girl, who won in every single category except for the four that I've already mentioned. Rachel had the best lips, the best ass, the best legs, and the nicest hands. Oh, and not to mention best hair-but she tied with Brittany on that one, because we picked a blonde and a brunette." Puck explained, shocking everybody with how long his speech had been.

"You...you think that I'm hot?" Rachel whispered, looking up at Puck.

"Don't worry about it Rachel. Just because we're on the same side with this Quinn battle doesn't mean I'm over what happened yesterday. I'm still mad at you and I'm still not worrying about you anymore," He said as he turned on his heel and stormed out of the choir room, following by Quinn who finally seemed to have found her voice again and announced that she was quitting-which nobody cared about-as she stormed out of the room.


	11. Puckleberry 20

**She'll Never Be Me  
A Glee Fan Fiction  
Chapter 11**

"Who are you into?" Rachel asked Sam as she slid into his car after glee. They'd officially 'broken' up, since clearly he no longer wanted to be with Quinn because of her bitchy attitude and her chances with Puck were less than the odds of her ever becoming a real star up in the school rather than just a star in the Broadway world. He was mad at her for what she'd done the day before. And since he was clearly overly over reacting that had to mean that he was into her in the same matter that she had been into him. Her plan had only been in action for about nine days and already it was proved as a failure. It had ruined her chances with the boy she loved, and it was all her fault.

"Would you laugh at me for saying that I fell for you? Would you tell me that I was being totally cliche if I told you it was true?" He asked in the corniest way that she could ever imagine hearing from a boy. It would be like bringing a pizza box with the words _will you be my girlfriend _written across the top of the box. He had rhymed the words and turned them into a poem. He looked over at her with a half smile on his face and a sad, honest look in his eyes. And Rachel couldn't help but think _why not? _

"I wouldn't laugh. Not at all. I'd say...I'd invite you over for dinner tonight." She told him, biting her bottom lip as she nodded once, the words coming out without any real thought put into them. His half grin spread out into a full on smile, making her grin along with him. If they couldn't be with the people they loved, then why couldn't they try and fall for somebody else?

"I'll drop you off at your house and come over later, okay? I have to get Stevie and Stacey. But, um...are your dads going to be there? I know I've already met them and all and you say they like me...but they scare me," He blushed as he started the car.

"My two gay dads _scare _you? You're a big, bad football player!" She giggled as he pulled out of the school parking lot.

"Hey, parents are scary when it comes to the boyfriend. Especially dads. And you have two!" Sam laughed.

Rachel shook her head as she sighed, still smiling. Sometimes it was easy to forget that she was in love with Puck still. Sometimes, when she was with Sam, she could make herself believe that she really did want to be with him.

Sometimes, every once in a while, when they were together like they were at that moment in time, all by themselves and they didn't have to play pretend anymore, it was very easy for her to forget the fact that both of them were madly in love with other people. When it came to times like they were going through at that moment, it was easy to pretend she really loved Sam. Because it was easy to be comfortable with him.

Sam was a funny guy. He was sweet and honest. He didn't worry about stupid things like popularity and dramatics. When he'd learned that Quinn was cheating on him, he hadn't made it a big ordeal in front of the entire school. He'd just ended their relationship and moved on. Or, acted like he'd moved on at least. Which was why his outburst that day in glee rehearsal when he'd defended Rachel and finally told Quinn off had been so shocking for everybody. And had made Rachel feel a little bit more towards Sam than just their already existing friendship. It made her feel like there could be something more.

She gave Sam a quick kiss on the cheek as he pulled into her driveway, assuring him that it would just be the two of them for dinner that night, before she exited the car and started towards her house, not noticing the truck parked in her driveway until she reached the door, a few seconds after Sam had driven away, and crashed into the solid, muscular boy who was standing there, staring at it with his arms crossed tightly over his chest and an impatient scowl on his face as he tapped his foot. As the figure slowly turned around and Rachel backed away slightly, she realized that it was Puck's rusted old Chevy parked in her driveway and that the mohawked boy was on her porch.

"Well, that would explain why you weren't answering the door when I was pounding on it." He said simply. That was it. No hello. There wasn't any sort of greeting that he offered to her. Instead he just stood there, staring down at her with his arms stuffed into his pockets and a sheepish, nervous grin on his face as he stared at the ground, right at her feet, purposefully avoiding looking her in the eyes. He didn't offer her any reason for why he was there. All he did was state the obvious in saying that the reason she wasn't answering his obnoxious knocking-she knew it was obnoxious because it was always like that when he decided to be polite and knock-was because she wasn't home.

"Yeah, I guess that would explain why I wasn't answering the door, wouldn't it," She offered, trying to lighten the mood which was obviously full of enough tension that could albeit be cut in half with an extra sharp butcher knife. Of course she knew it wouldn't work. She could strip naked and start doing back handsprings across her lawn and he wouldn't even crack a smile. He was clearly there for a reason and it was obvious that all he cared about was getting the conversation he thought was important out of the way.

"I thought you and Evans were only dating so he could piss Quinn off. Why was he giving you a ride home? I'm pretty sure you and him ended your little ruse of a relationship when he decided he didn't want Quinn anymore. Or, don't tell me. He's picking you over her? He wants to be with you, doesn't he? God, every time I decide to come and try to make things right with you, some shit turns it all around," He rolled his eyes.

"What the hell is your problem? It's not like you're my boyfriend or something where you actually get to have any claim on me. You and I aren't even friends so I really don't under-"Rachel never got to finish. Puck grabbed her face between his hands and held her close, planting a kiss right on her lips.

Her arms instinctively wrapped themselves around his neck, her hands clasped together to hold him there.

As soon as it was clear that she wasn't going to be pushing him away, he slid his hands from her cheeks down to her hips and held her there.

"Noah," SHe mumbled against his mouth, but he only used her words as an opportunity to slid his tongue into her mouth, allowing their tongues to combine in their little dance routine that seemed to be second nature to him.

"I don't care that you think I don't have any claim over you, Berry. You're my girl and you've been my girl forever. You've been my girl since we dated last year, alright and I'm not letting you go that easily. If you want to be with Evans, then you're going to find that relationship really hard, because I'm going to constantly be trying to ruin it for you," He told her, staring down into her eyes.

"I..I don't want to be with Sam," Rachel whispered, breathless from the kiss. "I want to be with you. I've wanted to be with you since we made out earlier this year. I want you, Noah, and I love you. That's the whole reason I got this stupid make-over. That's the whole reason I started this entire act with Sam. That's why Santana, Brittany and I are friends and that's why I sang that stupid song about wanting you back and why I did that silly duet with Sam that didn't even sound all that great because our voices just don't-"She never got to finish that either, because he was kissing her again.

"Did anybody every tell you that you talk too much?" He asked her with an arrogant smirk on his face as he pushed her up against the wall, holding is hands firmly around her waist, lifting her off the ground a bit as he held her tightly between him and the door into her house, her arms locked around his neck as she struggled to keep herself in the air so that she was still level with him as they kissed. Then he slowly turned her around so that she was facing the door and started to nibble at her neck as she unlocked the door and he pushed her into the house, kicking the door shut behind them as they continued to kiss. "But, just so we're clear-I totally get claim on you now," He growled into her ear.

* * *

About an hour later, there was a knock at Rachel's door as she sat on the couch, cuddling in Puck's arms during a break from their make out sessions.

"Shit!"

"What's the matter?"

"I told Sam to come over."

"What?"

His grip on her tightened as he pulled her closer.

"He said I was the girl he liked now and I thought you hated me..."

"I could never hate you."

"Well I didn't know that before!"

"So he's here because?"

"He wants to be my boyfriend."

"Can I go scare him off?"

"Shit!"

"Baby, you cussing is totally sexy, but what's wrong now?"

"Your truck!"

"What about it?"

"It's in my driveway!"

"So?"

"He can see it!"

"What does that-"

"He knows I'm here. I have to open the door."

"Dammit," he groaned as she rolled out of his embrace.

Rachel slowly made her way towards the door and opened it slowly, plastering a smile on her face.

She opened the door to see an open box of pizza, with the words _**Will you go out with me or is this too cheesy?** _scribbled across it sloppily.

THe pizza was even a vegan pizza, which was a beyond sweet gesture.

"Is that Puck's truck?" Sam asked as he closed the lid, his smile gone.

"Yeah..."She admitted, lowering her head.

"Nice. Real nice." Sam rolled his eyes as he turned around and stormed off, tossing the pizza box down onto her porch as he left.

"SAM!" She shouted, making a step to join him.

"SCREW YOU, RACHEL!" He said.

"Don't you dare talk to her like that!" Puck screamed, appearing in the doorway besides her.

"Screw you, too," Sam said.

"Dude, I'm sorry I stole your girlfriend but-"

"Screw you!" Sam repeated as he climbed into his car.


	12. Fabrevans

**She'll Never Be Me  
A Glee Fan Fiction  
Chapter 12**

The next day, Wednesday, the assignment was unofficially deemed as over. Mr. Shuester had written a new word on the board-_Apologies-_and the air around the room had changed. Instead of Sam and Rachel's usual PDA seating arrangement, Rachel was sitting between Puck and Santana, pinkies locked with Santana who also had her other pinky locked with Brittany's, who who was holding hands with Finn, who was on her other side. Puck's arm was draped over the back of Rachel's chair and Mike Chang was sitting besides him with his arm wrapped around Tina. In the back row was an angry Sam Evans, sitting there with his arms crossed. Artie was in the front row with Mercedes next to him and Lauren on her other side.

"Mr. Shuester? I have a song that goes with our new assignment!" Puck said as he stood up, surprising everybody-especially Rachel-with his volunteerance. Normally Puck only wanted to sing a solo if he was working to impress a girl, with the one exception from the beginning of the school year. Still, it caused Rachel and Santana to share a determined smirk with one another as Brittany muttered something about Rachel being a very good influence and Finn muttered a joke in mock anger about Finn trying to steal his spot as lead soloist.

"When did you find the time for this song?" Santana blurted, wondering if it was going to be a new occurrence to interrogate everybody before they performed a solo from now on, since that seemed to be their newest trent. "I mean, I couldn't hang out with Ray last night because you were hogging the Berry. She was my Berry first, just in case you forgot!" Santana teased him before flipping her ponytail and nodding for him to continue.

"Well, if Santana's rude little outburst is going to be my only interruption today, I'd like to sing a little song that I was working on last when when I should have been not-doing my homework." Puck grinned at them.

"But you did your homework," Rachel cut in, an anxious tone to her voice.

"Yes, Rachel. Now stop interrupting me so I can sing the freaking song!" He laughed.

"Alright. God, there's no reason to get hostile, you know?" She rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms, followed by her legs and leaned back in her chair, giving him a mock-angry glare that he knew held a little bit of real anger.

He knew he probably shouldn't mess with her, especially when it came to the amount of talking she did, but she just made it so easy and sometimes he couldn't help it. It was always the best to mess with the people that gave good reactions over the smallest things, and that had Rachel nailed to a T. Of course, his song choice was going to be messing with somebody else who seemed to get as angry as Finn when he was mocked.

_"Don't know what to tell you, don't know what to say/I knew that it was wrong but I did it anyway/I should grow up cause it didn't seem right/But she sent me a text last Saturday night/She said she was feeling kind of lonely/She didn't know where to turn/Maybe it was cupid, maybe it was stupid/I guess I'll never learn/ I'm sorry I stole your girlfriend/I'm sorry I stole your girlfriend/I know you're pissed off/But it's not my fault if she/She only wants to be with me/Sorry I stole your girlfriend/I'm so sorry I stole your girlfriend," _Puck sang with an arrogant smirk angled right at a glaring Sam.

_"I know what you're thinking/Maybe there's a chance/That she'll be coming back/But you don't understand/There's nothing you can do, it's too late, don't you see/That she was into you but now I guess she's into me/I didn't even see it coming/Maybe that's the way it goes/Wasn't even trying, yeah, you think I'm lying/ I guess you'll never know/I'm sorry I stole your girlfriend/I'm sorry I stole your girlfriend/I know you're pissed off, but it's not my fault if she/She only wants to be with me,"_ Puck went on singing, smirking at Sam as he walked over to Rachel and spun her around, twirling her into his arms before twirling her back into her chair where she sat with wide eyes and an open, shocked jaw.

_"Now she's telling all her friends/That it's never gonna end/And I'm thinking to myself, sure hope there's nobody else/Oh no no/Sorry I stole your girlfriend/I'm sorry I stole your girlfriend/I know you're pissed off/But it's not my fault if she/She only wants to be with me/Sorry I stole your girlfriend/I'm sorry I stole your girlfriend/I know you're pissed off/But it's not my fault if she/Only wants to be with me/Only wants to be with me," _Puck sang the song, his usual smooth, cool guy dance moves filling the space as Mike jumped up and joined him with the dancing as well as-surprising everybody in the room-Finn, who was flashing apologetic looks towards Artie as he sang back up vocals with Puck.

"Screw all of you!" Sam screamed as she song ended and he stood up. "I'm so done with all of you in here. Yesterday, you all hated Quinn. Last week you all hated Finn. A few weeks ago it was Rachel. And now it's me? What the hell is wrong with you guys? You all have to hate the same person just because your new favorite doesn't like them? Damn, I thought this was a room about acceptance and appreciating everybody, but it's just another clique. And the sad part is, you leave people out who are in your own clique." He said as he started to walk away.

"Nobody hates you," Santana said in a low growl. "Nobody in this room hates you. And we do accept your large trouty mouth and your stupid impressions that don't sound like shit. We accept you for all of your nerdy little flaws, and hell, some of us even love you for it. Puck's an ass-we accept him for that, and some people love him for that. He was messing with you," Santana said softly.

"He didn't mean anything by it. And Mike's always jumping up and dancing with us during solos. It's his thing because he doesn't think he can sing. But he can _dance. _So we let him go. And Finn was singing because he did the same to Artie and felt bad," Rachel whispered.

"But none of them did it because they hate you," Brittany said.

"We'd all suck if we hated you," Mercedes admitted.

"Because we're all different." Tina shrugged.

"We need each other. That's why we're all here. We need one another because in this room, for a little while each day, we all get to have friends and it doesn't matter that Santana and Brittany were cheerleaders or that Finn's a quarterback," Artie said.

"It doesn't matter that Puck used to throw us into dumpsters and toss slushies into our faces on a daily basis," Rachel added on. "And it doesn't matter that you're the nerdiest football player in the world. Nobody cares that Artie's in a wheelchair but wants to be a dancer and it doesn't matter that Tina wears blue contacts because she hates her eyes," Rachel went on.

"Nobody in here gives two shits about my weave or Rachel's diva personality. They don't mind that Santana's a bitch or that Brittany can't add two and two. We don't judge in here. Nobody in this room-even Finn with his shitty dance moves and lack of cordination-isn't judged. Nobody ever said anything to to Kurt for being gay and when we had quiet Matt Rutherford in here, we never questioned the reason that he didn't talk very much. And we don't make fun of Mr. Shue's butt chin or his hair," Mercedes giggled.

"And last year when I was kicked off the Cheerios and Jacob Ben Israel spread my secret all over the school and I had absolutely nobody in my life-when nobody wanted to be my friend or even look at me for too long, I had everybody in this room. When my uniform didn't fit me anymore, the people in this room stood by me. They were all I had left, and they were really all I needed. I didn't feel like the stupid slut who cheated on her loving boyfriend with his bad boy best friend and ended up pregnant. I could forget, just for a little while, that I was pregnant. I just felt like Quinn Fabray again. Because in here, all that matters is your name and your talent," Quinn said, appearing in the doorway.

* * *

"I want to talk to you."

Rachel closed her eyes as she turned around, closing her locker slowly with a sigh to face the boy who had just confronted her. As soon as she was facing him, she let out a long, deep breath, and opened her eyes.

"What do you want, Sam?" She asked, running a hand through her hair as she held onto her books tightly and scanned his hands to make sure he wasn't holding any sort of flavored ice that could allow her to be covered from head to toe in the disgusting, freezing cold slush that was dyed to resemble some sort of bland flavor that stung when it hit a person's eyes.

"I'm not going to yell at you. I'm not going to accuse you of anything or threaten you. And I don't have any weapons, okay? I just want to talk to you, alright? Is that okay with you, or do you need to have some sort of protection around? I won't blame you for not wanting to talk to me, you know. I'll admit that I was a bit of a jerk to you today," He said, earning a snort from her, signaling that that was quite the understatement. "Alright, maybe I was a really big jerk-the king of the jerks," He admitted, earning a half smile and a giggle from her.

"Well? What do you want to talk about? I have time-Noah's waiting for me in his truck, but he knows that I typically take a long while in order to make sure I have all of my books, unless I have a reason to be in a hurry, as I did when you were giving me a ride to and from school, because you had to pick of your younger brother and sister. Luckily for Noah, Becca is involved in millions of after school programs which gives her barely any free time and causes Noah to complain about carting her around. But, well, you don't really care about any of that, do you? You wanted to talk to me and I'm rambling on like an idiot. What was it you needed to talk about?" She asked with that carefree smile only she could pull off.

"I'm sorry for the way I flipped out today in practice when Puck sang his song, and I get that I should be saying this to him and all that, but I can't and I honestly won't. Because it wouldn't be honest. I'm not sorry that I said that to him and I'm not sorry I got mad when he sang that song. It would be a lie if I said anything to anybody except for you, because you didn't deserve how I spoke to you, just like you didn't deserve how I talked to you last night. So I just want to apologize to you." He said.

"I forgive you," Rachel shrugged. "I understand why you would be upset with what happened between you and I, especially after I was helping you out in getting back the girl you wanted which only resulted in me getting my significient other while you realized how you truly felt about her. Of course, now that her good side is coming out again, perhaps you'd like her back," Rachel said easily.

"I'm really confused about what I want right now, actually," He sighed, running a hand through his hair as he shook his head. "None of it really makes any sense. All I wanted was for her to feel bad about what she did," Sam admitted.

"You think that I didn't feel bad about what happened between you and I, with Finn?" A new, soft, deep voice that somehow managed to be almost musical and completely feminine and sexy joined the conversation. Quinn Fabray was now a part of the conversation the country boy and the New York bound girl were having with one another. "You honestly think that?" She wondered.

"Well what was I supposed to think? You made out with him while you were dating me. You got mono from him and lied about it. And when you and I broke up, you just publicly started to date him," Sam asked her.

"Okay, well, I can't argue with that logic," Quinn reasoned.

"It's not reason. It's the truth." Sam reminded her.

"I was stupid. I wanted to try and wipe away my mistakes from last year."

"By doing the same thing?"

"It was different this time!"

"You slept with Puck and got pregnant. You kissed FInn and got mono."

"I get it. Cheating always ends in disaster!"

"I just don't get it. Weren't you happy?"

"Yes."

"Then why-"

"I didn't think I deserved you."

"What?"

"I think I'm just going to go now..."Rachel said, quickly turning around and walking over, leaving the Ken and Barbie couple to their discussion.


	13. Chapter 13: Lauren's Revenge

**She'll Never Be Me  
A Puckleberry Fan Fiction  
Chapter 13**

"Berry!"

Rachel cringed at the sound of her name coming from the single handled scariest person in the entire school.

This person was stronger than Noah Puckerman, the toughest of all the football players.

The bully was crueler than Santana, acting without a heart or a conscious to guide their actions.

They had less self control than Quinn Fabray, who would do anything in order to remain popular and in control.

They had less brain cells than Finn Hudson to tell them what they were doing was wrong and indecent.

This person was smarter than Brittany Pierce, always knowing how to use a person's weaknesses to their own advantage.

They beat all of the football and hockey players who tosses slushies at Rachel.

Because this person? They weren't afraid of what Puck would do to them for hurting Rachel or upsetting her.

This person played by their own rules, and they didn't care about anybody but themselves.

Yes, Lauren Zizes had just called for Rachel's attention, and it would only be worse on herself if the short girl tried to ignore her.

"Lauren! Hello, how lovely it is to see you today_," _Rachel said with faux cheerfulness as the wrestler approached.

"Cut the crap, Berry. We have a lot to talk about," Lauren said bitterly, crossing her arms over her chest.

In all reality, Rachel knew that she should have been expecting this to come. She should have known that Lauren was not going to take losing Puck, her little lackey who would do anything for her, to the biggest loser the school had ever seen, very well.

Lauren was going to want revenge that could match Santana's temper tantrums whenever she came close to losing her sex pal the previous year. Even when Lauren hadn't _wanted _Puck, she'd kicked Santana's ass over him.

And Rachel was a lot weaker than Santana was. She might have the dancer's lithe and toned body that was obtained by years of a structured diet and harsh work out schedule, but she'd never be able to take down Lauren, not even in her dreams.

"Oh, alright," Rachel said, backing up from the center of the hallway until her back hit a locker. She cringed against the cool metal and tilted her face towards her shoulder. "Just...not the nose, please?" She whimpered.

"I'm not going to hit you, Berry, no matter how much I would like to. That would involve too much paperwork and too many problems with Puckerman. I'm not in the mood for either of those," She rolled her eyes.

"If you aren't going to hit me and you aren't angry about my relationship with Noah than what _do _you want to talk to me about?" Rachel asked, slowly unfolding from her terrified ball.

"Did I say that I wasn't angry about Puckerman? Because I don't remember saying that. I am pretty damn upset that he left me to be with you. It damages my reputation, as well," Lauren glared at her and Rachel gulped.

"I'm sorry-I didn't mean to steal him from you." Rachel said, bringing her hands up to cover her face, just in case Lauren decided to change her mind, or was waiting to take Rachel by surprise. She wanted to be prepared for anything.

"Calm your little ass down. I said I wasn't going to hit you, didn't I? I don't go back on my word. But, I _am _pissed off about your new found relationship with Puckerman," She said, looking down at her with distaste.

"What do you want, because according to Noah, the two of you weren't even really dating," Rachel blurted out, instantly regretting her words. After all, she was trying to make sure Lauren _didn't _kick her ass for her relationship with Puck. Saying that Puck didn't count their relationship as a real one wasn't going to make the large girl go any easier on her.

"He broke up with me after that night in the arcade. And I figured it was because of you, but I couldn't be sure, you know? And then I noticed how jealous he started to get. And then? Then, out of nowhere, Sam's all upset because the two of you-Puck and you-are dating. He actually dumped _me _for _you," _Lauren asked.

The scary part was that Rachel could detect a little bit of shock and surprise in the wrestler's voice. Lauren actually couldn't belief that Puck would break up with a girl like her to be with a girl like Rachel. Lauren was pretty, but she had a lousy personality and she could kill Puck in a hug. Rachel was Noah's dream girl-everybody in school knew it.

If anybody had ever been shocked about one of Noah Puckerman's relationships, it was his affair with Lauren. Because nobody thought that Noah Puckerman would date _another _Christian girl in a _real _and serious relationship. And they never would have thought that _Lauren-_big boned, all muscle, Lauren Zizes-would be his next girlfriend.

But Rachel? They'd all expected it. There had been polls for as to when they would finally get back together. People took bets on how Puck would get her back. And most people had just _known _that Rachel was using Sam in order to piss of Puck and that her entire make-over had been to grab his attention in order to win him back, taking him from the reigns held by the strongest girl in school.

"I'm honestly very sorry that he broke up with you for me and that the two of us dating now hurts you and your pride, but I can't bring myself to be sorry that he and I are dating now. I care about him and he cares about me. I can't lie to you and say I'm sorry about that without hating myself for being so dishonest," Rachel said.

Lauren never responded to Rachel's words. Instead, she brought her fist back and quickly made a swing for Rachel's nose. The shorter girl squealed in panic and ducked quickly, gasping as Lauren's fist slammed directly into a locker. Rachel ducked underneath the muscular arm of the larger girl and hurried down the hallway, as fast as her heels would carry her, listening for the sound of Lauren's footsteps after her, which she heard soon enough, as soon as Lauren was finished swearing.

"Rachel?" Rachel cursed under her breath as she slammed into a solid feature, falling to the ground. She looked up to find Sam Evans looking down at her with his eyebrows arched in confusion. He lifted her to her feet and held her close to him, in a protective and unromantic gesture as he scanned the crowds of students for what could have sent her running. "What's the matter? Who's chasing you and what are they trying to do?" He asked her, spotting Lauren pushing through the crowd.

"Lauren's trying to hurt me because Noah broke up with her in order to be with me. I stupidly said a few comments that probably only worked to make her even more mad at me and she swung at me, after telling me multiple times that a fight had not been her intention. I panicked and took off running as soon as she tried to hit me the first time. And now she's spotted me and I'm going to be beaten senselessly," She groaned, barely noticing how Sam pushed her behind him and stood in front of her.

"Move aside, Bieber," Lauren glared, crossing her arms over her chest as she reached them. She was much shorter than Sam, but she at least twice as wide. "I don't want to have to kick your ass and the Munchkin's ass. That's going to involve even more paperwork and an even harsher punishment. So let's just step aside and let me take care of the Lollipop Guild behind you and it'll all be over," Lauren rolled her eyes, making countless _Wizard Of Oz _references in order to insult Rachel's height.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that. You see, this girl happens to be my best friend and I really don't think it would be wise to let you try and hurt her. Especially on my watch, because Puck might take his anger at you for hurting her out on me. And that distilled anger is not something that I would like to receive. So, if you wouldn't mind politely stepping aside and leaving her alone, well, that would just be awesome. If not, Puck's walking up the hallway towards us right now, so perhaps you could talk to him about this?" Sam smirked.

"Rach? Sam? Lauren? What's going on here?" Puck asked, stepping up to join the trio, looking from a cowering Rachel to a protective Sam to a raging Lauren. Something was going on and Puck was going to get to the bottom of it, whether his girlfriend, ex-girlfriend and some-what-best-friend wanted him to or not. After all, he wasn't the residential bad ass for no reason. There was a very good and very logical reason behind it and Puck wasn't going to let anybody forget it. "Are you trying to kick my girlfriend's ass because I left you? That shit ain't cool, Lauren, and I will break my rules and hit a girl if you lay a hand on her," Puck said.

"I'll probably have to help you with that one," Sam spoke up. "Hitting Rachel would be like the people who abuse their dogs. It's just wrong. It's an easy target-like stealing candy from a baby-but it isn't cool. You shouldn't hit somebody as tiny and nice as Rachel. Especially when the muscle ration for Rachel and Lauren is about 1 to 4. Lauren, you could eat Rachel for breakfast and still have room for Puck and I. So, why don't you take what's left of your pride and save it by _not _hurting Rachel, because hitting her would ruin your reputation the same way Puck hitting you would ruin his," Sam observed.

Rachel was slightly impressed by the way the boys were putting aside their feelings towards one another-the very hostile feelings, as it were-and working together in order to protect her. She also had to admit that she was shocked-in a very good way-to hear Sam's use of large words and long, complex sentences that were backed up by facts and mathematical soundness. It was impressive in the same way Rachel's voice was impressive for her height. And she was even more excited when Lauren rolled her eyes, muttering that Rachel was lucky her bodyguards were so logical, and stormed away, shoving Jacob Ben Israel roughly into a locker.

"Well, that worked a lot better than I'd hoped," Rachel said, brushing her hands off on her skirt as she straightened up. "I honestly thought she was going to get at least one solid punch in, most likely breaking my nose and forcing me into getting some sort of cosmetic surgery that would only result in the slaughter of my voice, wrecking my career before it even began." She shrugged, leaning up and giving Sam a hug with a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, for defending me," She said as she released him and walked towards Puck. "And you as well, Noah," She smiled, giving her boyfriend a quick peck on the lips.


	14. Chapter 14:The Date

**She'll Never Be Me  
A Glee Fan Fiction  
Chapter 14**

"I'm taking out out tonight."

Rachel raised her eyebrows, glancing upwards at her tall, muscular boyfriend as she sat in the library, working on her math homework, calculator resting underneath her fingertips with a pen tapping against the desk due to the efforts of her other hand.

"I'm taking you out tonight," Puck repeated, pulling the chair opposite her out from the table and lowered himself into it, spinning it around so that he straddled the back of the chair, AC-Slater style, from that old TV show, _Saved By The Bell. _He raised his eyebrows back at her as she gave an amused smile chuckling before turning back to her text book and scribbling something onto her notebook.

He frowned, furrowing his brows as he studied her, trying to figure out what her problem was. Their relationship was public knowledge, he and Sam were all buddy-buddy in order to please her, since she insisted on being his best friend. Brittany, Santana and her were the absolute best of friends. He and Sam had gotten Lauren off of her back just that morning, and she hadn't been bullied in weeks, thanks to her temporary make-over and their relationship (he missed the good little school girl look she'd mastered for so long).

"What's the problem? You don't already have plans, do you?" He asked, only partially kidding. He was teasing her, in a way, but a large part of him was angry with her for ignoring his requests and for albeit laughing in his face about his want of taking her out on an actual date. And another part of him was curious as to why she was reacting to him in such a strange way. He never got a reaction like that from girls, even from Lauren who had even gone as far as to stand him up, something that didn't work when it came to Puckerman, the ladies' man of McKinley. Nobody stood him up, yet she had done just that. And now Rachel was ignoring his proposal.

"I don't have any other plans, Noah," Rachel sighed, a half-smile that was full of amusement curled across her lips as she looked up at him, releasing the calculator from her grasp. "And nothing is wrong, per say," She shrugged, biting back on her bottom lip as if to keep from laughing. "It's just...well...never mine. I shouldn't really be surprised because it's merely your nature. What time would you like me to be ready for our rendez-vous tonight?" She asked, shaking her head as she flipped to the next page in her book, resuming her math homework as if she hadn't just given him the vaguest answer in the entire world.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? Are you mad at me for saying I'm taking you out or something? What are you trying to say-it's just how I am? That's so...vague and mysterious! And normally I'd be all over that and find it sexy as sin, but I just can't get past the fact that you're being all secretive and messing with my head right now, so please start explaining this to me so that we can be on the same page," He sighed, running a hand through his mohawk as he stared at her, trying to understand her.

"It's just...well, normally, when a boy asks a girl out on a date, he, you know..._asks. _He doesn't just tell her that they're going to go out-he asks her to go and then she gives an answer, like she got to have a say in the matter. I was just a little shocked by your bluntness, where you simply _told _me that we'd be going out tonight," She shrugged, glancing up at the clock with a sigh.

"Oh..."He said, realization dawning on him as she gathered her things, stuffing them into her bag as the bell was going to ring shortly. "Rachel, I'm new to this whole boyfriend thing," He sighed.

"I understand that, Noah, and I don't hold anything against you," She shook her head with a soft smile as she stood up.

"I probably should have prepared you for how many times I was going to mess this all up," He went on.

"I was already prepared for you messing things up, Noah. I understand that you've never really done the whole relationship thing before. That's why I'm doing my best to accept you and all of your...tactless ways," She shrugged, pulling her bag onto her shoulder.

"And I just wanted you to know that I'm trying, I really am, but I've never actually felt this way before and it's hard for me to try and grasp all of the sweet boyfriend habits all at once. I'm trying, I really am, but I can't just magically become a guy like Finn, who just knows how to be a boyfriend as if it were programmed into him," He explained.

"I don't want you to be like Finn, Noah. If I wanted Finn back then I would have been trying to make him jealous and not you. If I wanted Finn back then I would be with Finn right now and not you. I don't love Finn anymore than I supposedly loved Sam. I love you, and you are the only boy that I love. You are the only boy that I have ever loved. I don't want you to be like Finn, alright? I want you to be Noah," She smiled, turning around to head towards the exit.

"Alright, that's fair enough-but I still want to be a good boyfriend for you. I'm not saying perfect, even though that's what you deserve, because I kind of what to stay with you for a little while, and I don't think that's going to happen if I try to be perfect or make promises like that, because there's no way I'm going to be able to reach that status," He said, hurrying to catch up with her. "I can't be the perfect boyfriend who gives you everything you want and always says the right things, but I can try to be the guy that protects you and makes you feel beautiful. I can try to come close to that guy," Puck told her.

"I wouldn't expect you to be perfect, Noah," Rachel shook her head, pushing the door to the library open and entering the hallway. "It wouldn't be fair of me to expect you to be perfect, because I'm not perfect myself, and, besides that, Finn wasn't even close to the ideal of perfection I tried to hold him to. I honestly wouldn't expect anything more from you than you've just promised me, and I wouldn't expect anymore than that from anybody, to be completely honest. I know what is realistic, and I'm keeping my goals and sights towards realistic scales when it comes to others who aren't me," She explained.

"Will you stop talking and listen to me? Don't respond anymore, just listen!" Puck sighed, following her towards her locker. "Now, we've established that I can't be perfect," He cursed the fact that he was actually _trying _to get good grades in order to please her and make her proud. It was effecting his dialect and that was hurting his bad-boy reputation. "And we've reached the conclusion that I can try to be a good boyfriend, despite my flaws," He went on.

"Yes, I do believe that we've reached those conclusion-alright, I'm sorry, I won't interrupt you any more, god," She rolled her eyes, stopping at her locker. She turned towards the metal and grabbed her lock, twisting it around the dial and pulling it open, just as the bell rang and the halls began to fill up with other students.

"So, can we just start this entire conversation over?" He asked. She nodded, slamming her locker shut. "Okay," He sighed. "Rachel Berry, would you like to go out to dinner with me tonight, on a date?" He asked her.

"Yes, Noah, I would love to," She smiled, reaching up and kissing him on the cheek before disappearing down the hall.


	15. Chapter 15:The End

**She'll Never Be Me  
A Glee Fan Fiction  
Chapter 15**

"I officially hate being single. I've got to be the only single person left in this glee club and I find it utterly revolting that a hot, sexy Latino ex-cheerleader like myself is stuck as a disgusting single lady who hadn't had sex since Puckerman decided to sign a freaking virginity pledge after he got Quinn pregnant because he was all afraid it would happen again!" Santana ranted, crossing her arms over her chest tightly as the Glee clubbers sat at the lunch table together a few weeks after Puckleberry's first date. "That is _not _the way this is supposed to play out!" She whined, causing everybody to laugh at her over dramatics.

"I think that you've been hanging out with Rachel a little too much. You're starting to turn into a drama queen and I don't think that any of us need that. Especially when we've already got Rachel who is the _queen _of the drama queens," Puck rolled his eyes, wrapping his arm tightly around his girl and pulling her closer to him, giving her a loving kick on the cheek to ask for forgiveness because of his technical insult. But Rachel didn't care. She was a drama queen and she was proud of it. It was going to help her make it on Broadway, after all, and that was her next big goal, now that she had Puckerman as her boyfriend and away from Lauren.

"Personally, I think that Santana might just be giving Rachel a run for her money. I mean, at least Rachel doesn't get all bipolar when it comes to her drama queen ways. She's overly dramatic, but she isn't too quick to change emotions. At least she's got some beats in there and rests before her tears break through the anger," Mike Chang observed, flashing both Santana and Rachel a teasing, no-harm-no-foul grin as he reached under the table for Tina's hand, giving his girlfriend's palm a tight squeeze as she giggled at her boyfriend's stupid-yet completely and totally true-comment that had caused even Santana and Rachel to laugh.

"Nobody can be as bad as Rachel. It just ain't possible," Sam Evans argued, his arm casually thrown across the back of his girlfriend's chair, Quinn's blonde hair flowing down her back as he occasionally reached out and played with a few strands carelessly. Sam and Rachel had become the absolute best of friends, acting as the Santana and Puck of the nerds. That had made things awkward with Rachel and Quinn at first, but the girls had quickly gotten over it. The friendship between Sam and Rachel, though, had given Sam certain liberties when it came to harassing for being a drama queen.

"Hold up a second-I get that I'm with Finn and a few others are paired up, but Artie and Mercedes are single, too," Brittany observed from her perch on Finn's lap, his arms wrapped firmly around her tiny waist as he held her close to him. "Although...it must sort of suck that even Kurt's got a boyfriend and the three of you are single..."The cliche-d, stereotypical dumb blonde said slowly, her pale eyebrows forming a V of concentration as Santana glared at her, Mercedes turned to her with crossed arms, and Artie raised his eyebrows at her, clearly shocked that even she could be that stupid and tactless.

"Britt..."Quinn said, shaking her head as she laughed. "That was most definitely the wrong thing to say, especially to a diva that could come close to beating Rachel in a diva off," Quinn said, ducking as Mercedes chucked a precious tater tot at the blonde's beautiful head of flawless, golden blonde waves. "An angry Latino that _will _go all Lima Heights on you," Quinn went on, bring her leg to the side to block the kick that she was sure Santana would be aiming at her for that comment. "And your ex-boyfriend who you broke up with for some crazy, unnecessary reason," Quinn said, nodding her acceptance to Artie's proud smile.

* * *

"I'm sorry, but do some people tell you that your impressions are good? I understand that people laugh when you do them, but they aren't laughing because they are humorous. People laugh at your god awful impressions because they are just that-awful and not good at all. They don't even sound like the person you're trying to imitate," Rachel said, her giggling making it hard to get her insults out to Sam, who had just finished a Darth Vader impression.

"You know, everybody says you're so nice and kind and polite to everybody-but you're kinda mean," Sam frowned, but he wasn't serious and his eyes were still smiling. He and Rachel always insulted one another, throwing crude jabs back and forth at one another. Sometimes Puck or Quinn would over react and try to step in to stop the other one, but Rachel and Sam's laughter normally made them stop and just shake their heads in confusion, because they'd never understand them.

They were an unlikely friendship, after all. Sure, Sam was nerdy with a goody sense of humor, but he was a Grade-A hottie who played football and was easily one of the most popular boys in school. Rachel? She was bullied and had been from her very first day at McKinley. She was in the Glee club because she loved it and it was her future. He was the popular boy and she was the nerd, yet they'd found a friendship with one another that really didn't have anything to do with romantic feelings at all.

"I'm not being _mean," _Rachel rolled her eyes as she kicked her feet up onto the couch they were sitting on in her living room, allowing them to rest on his lap, her back arched against the back of the couch as she lied there, waiting for Puck to finish making their snacks. "I'm giving you an honest opinion so you don't humiliate yourself trying to make some sort of career and/or future based on this," Rachel responded with a playful grin flashed at him at the very end of her statement.

"How does Puck put up with you? You're so mean and judgmental! God, I mean, you're full of criticism and I honestly just can't take it anymore. It makes me go home and cry myself to-yeah, I can't even try to be serious about this," Sam sighed, shaking his head as he burst into a fit of near-hysterical laughter in what was supposed to be a hurt, angry, and upsetting statement, honestly meant to be serious so he could get an apology from Rachel before they all burst into a round of laughter.

"He puts up with me because he gets rewards," Rachel smirked, sticking her tongue out at him. "And he loves me! Because I'm pretty...and I'm funny. And he likes me! He likes me, Sam!" Rachel shrieked, making her voice resemble a young child's voice as she teased him. Sam sighed, rolling his eyes as he muttered her least favorite words in the entire world. Sam Evans actually told Rachel Berry to shut up. And, surprisingly, she listened to him.

* * *

"Are you glad you picked me over Lauren?" Rachel asked, her head resting on Puck's chest as they cuddled together on her bed. His mother, who fawned all over Rachel and practically had their entire wedding planned, was very strict about allowing them in Puck's room alone together, which was why they were always at Rachel's place when they wanted alone time.

Her fathers? Surprisingly enough, they trusted Puck and Rachel, encouraging them to go up to Rachel's room and allowing-and encouraging-them to shut the door so they could have their privacy. Rachel said it was because she'd never given them reason to doubt her. Puck was sure it was because they didn't know how teenage boys' minds worked when it came to girls.

Either way, it was clear that the fathers-who intimidated Puck so much he would never even want to dare try anything more with Rachel, no matter how badly he was longing for the next step-were the parents that allowed them so lead way, giving them whatever space and freedom they asked for, as long as they didn't show that the trust they were given wasn't deserved.

And Puck's mother, who was supposed to be the easy one to get around and actually _want _them to have a serious relationship? Well, she was the over protective one who was constantly giving them the sex talk when they were at the Puckerman household-no matter what it was they were doing, eating or just hanging out.

Which was _another _reason that Rachel and Puck preferred to spend their alone time-their time without the other gleeks-at the Berry residence. It meant there was no sex-talk alternated with plans for their marriage, which neither of them had actually agreed to just yet-Puck was going to make sure they got there eventually, of course.

"You really are bat-shit-crazy, you know that?" Puck asked her, whispering his words into her hair, ending the sentence with a soft kiss on the top of her head, buried deep in her dark, soft and thick wavy hair that he loved to play with and tangle his fingers in while they were kissing. "Absolutely, without a doubt, certifiably, insane," He teased.

"I think it's a pretty fair question, Noah," Rachel said, pushing off of his chest and sitting up, leaning slightly over him, at a very small angle as she glared at him. "I'm merely curious as to whether you're happy you picked me," She frowned.

"And I'm merely telling you that you must be psycho if you think for even one second I doubt dumping Lauren Zizes to be with you," He shrugged, giving her a lazy grin, wishing she would just relax.

"Why is it so crazy to wonder if you think you made the right choice? Noah, I don't want you to regret being with me," She frowned, but her anger was quickly fading and he knew that she was softening up.

"I don't regret leaving her, Rachel. I would have left her, even if you and I hadn't gotten together. I _did _leave her when I thought there was no chance for us. Remember? I thought you wanted Sam," Puck teased her.

"I think you're the crazy one," Rachel muttered, rolling onto her side and slinging an arm over his torso, giving him half of a hug as she moved closer to him. "Thinking I'd pick Samuel over you," She rolled her eyes.

"You were all over the guy! I was a little bit jealous, because you were supposed to be _my _girl, even if I was being stupid trying to get with Lauren, but that was to get over you," Puck reasoned.

"I was single when you and Lauren got together. Finn and I had just broken up, because I made out with you, remember? You could have tried to get me back instead of-"She began, but he cut her off.

"No, I couldn't. I promise Finn that I would stay away from you, around the time you and I sang the duet together-and that was when I realized just how much I wanted you back," He sighed, shaking his head.

"What made you go back on your word?" Rachel asked, knowing how much a promise meant to Puck. When he gave somebody his word, he never went back on it. THat just wasn't how he was.

"He liked Brittany."

"Is that all?"

"And I was insanely jealous of Sam moving in on you."

"Well, I was jealous of you and Lauren!"

"Baby, she's got nothing on you."

"Yet you claimed that she rocked your world."

"Are you jealous?"

"Should I be?"

"I've never gone half as far with you as Lauren..."

"That doesn't answer my question, Noah."

"Listen, no matter how far I went with her? I'd always pick you."

"Why?"

"Because, baby, you're a hot Jew and I'm a hot Jew-it's natural!"

"I guess she'll just never be as great as me."

"You can say that again," He grinned as he leaned in and kissed her.


End file.
